Light Heavyweight Contender Craig Richards Shares How He Builds Boxing Strength
It’s fair to say that there’s a lot riding on Craig Richards next fight. Win against rival Joshua Buatsi and the former WBA International champion can legitimately say that he’s Britain’s best light heavyweight. Not to mention, a fight against WBA champion Dmitry Bivol, who vanquished arguably the pound-for-pound number one fighter in the world, Canelo Álvarez, would be within his grasp.
No surprise, then, that Richards is leaving no stone unturned in his pursuit of victory, putting himself through carefully-programmed gym workouts, which he demonstrates here in the latest entry of our How I Build my Body Series.
Richards starts his workout with med-ball slams, which he uses to build explosive power throughout his body. He says: "As a boxer, we speak about exploding off the legs, but we also need that in the upper body." This exercise will do just that, he says.
Next, Richards moves onto dumbbell floor press, which is perfect for building strength for power punches. As for technique, he advises: "Elbows on the floor, feet nice and flat, lying on your back, and then press up. Boom."
After finishing the dumbbell floor press, Richards completes another exercise to build boxing strength, using weighted lunges to develop a strong boxing stance. "Everyone knows predominantly [in boxing] you're on one leg more than the other, so you want to make sure you're strengthening them up," he says.
Richards finishes his workout with lateral ice skater jumps, which, unsurprisingly, are perfect for boxing prep. This time, he's working on his footwork and generating power from the legs. He performs the move holding a med ball, just to give his balance an extra test.
With that Richards is done. You can find out if all that work pays dividends when Richards fights Buatsi on 21 May, live on DAZN.
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