Training like a champion: Penn and Florian get ready for UFC 101 showdown
Published Tuesday July 28th, 2009
Marv Marinovich's and Canadian Jonathan Chaimberg's work will be done come Aug. 8 when Kenny Florian and lightweight champion B.J. Penn climb into the cage at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia for the main event of UFC 101.
But both mixed martial arts fighters will be more than ready after of weeks of workouts with their strength and conditioning coaches. If you want proof, check out the YouTube video of Penn jumping out of a swimming pool. Or think of Florian doing chin-ups with a 75-pound weight attached to his waist.
Penn's amazing pool exit has become an Internet favourite, viewed more than three million times.
Penn is standing in three feet of water in the shallow end of the pool. He bobs down - his head still above water - and then propels himself out of water with no hands like a rocket-propelled frog, landing on the edge and then nonchalantly walking away.
Not bad for someone's whose cardio was questioned early in his career.
In preparing for his 155-pound title defence against Florian, Penn left his native Hawaii and set up training camp in California where he spent several months working out with Marinovich.
A former NFL player and strength coach, Marinovich is famous for training his son Todd from the cradle. In a memorable 1988 article titled "Bred to be a Superstar," Sports Illustrated documented how the younger Marinovich's upbringing included teething on frozen kidney and having his hamstring stretched at one month.
Todd Marinovich went onto to play quarterback for USC and was drafted by the Oakland Raiders in the first round in 1991. But substance abuse problems took their toll and his pro career - which included CFL stops in Winnipeg and B.C. - never amounted to much.
Penn swears by Marv Marinovich, however.
"He's an awesome trainer, he's the best I've every seen and it's good to have that kind of knowledge around," Penn told a conference call Tuesday. "Without giving away too much, I don't want to talk about it too much, but he's just amazing. He works your balance and your explosion and your speed and your power.
"People look at him and they think he's a joke, they think 'Oh this guy's no good, look what he did to his son' and all this stuff. If you've seen someone go that far, that he did that to his son, wouldn't you want that guy on your side if you were trying to get in shape?"
Pittsburgh Steelers safety Troy Polamalu is another Marinovich believer.
Penn believes while it may take 20 to 30 years from now - "because everybody's kind of fixed in the way they train" - Marinovich will eventually be recognized for his innovation in training.
Penn is so taken by Marinovich that he calls his UFC 94 loss in January to welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre "a blessing," arguing that he had won, he would never have sought out a new conditioning coach. In a video on www.bjpenn.com, he says his new training regimen will help him create his fighting legacy.
"I want to see how my body works with the tools Marv that has given me," he said.
Penn has been a champion at both 155 and 170 pounds. He believes his optimum fighting weight is somewhere in the middle, but there is no such weight class. The Hawaiian looks built like a rock when he fights at 155, even if he has to suck the water out of his body to make weight.
As for jumping out of the pool, Penn said he tried it for fun and did it. Someone suggested they capture it on video - www.bjpenn.com has a thriving community of 90,000-plus members - so he did it again for the camera.
Penn, known as The Prodigy for the speed in which he won a black belt and a Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion, has Gumby-like flexibility. Another video shows him putting his right foot behind his head, without using his hands.
Florian has his own conditioning guru in Chaimberg, who also works with St. Pierre in their native Montreal, former light-heavyweight title holder Rashad Evans and other fighters.
"It's been tremendous working with him, He's been an amazing help and a huge asset to me," Florian said in an interview. "I think it's going to be crucial, obviously being in shape, knowing it's a five-round fight, it's going to be important. And knowing that Chaimberg has helped many people prepare for five-round fights and going through his protocols and training regimens, gives me even that much more confidence.
"And I see the results, I see the difference in the way that I feel, the way that I look and how I'm performing in my training sessions."
Chaimberg says Florian, like St. Pierre, could only do 10 chin-ups when he first got hold of him. Now he does them with a 75-pound weight attached to his body.
Florian has also packed on the muscle, weighing in at 173 pounds some two weeks ago. He will arrive in Philadelphia at about 164 pounds next week, leaving under 10 pounds to cut.
Chaimberg says Florian is now flying through his exercises, pointing to St. Pierre and middleweight Nate Marquardt as the only fighters who outperform Florian these days.
Confidence in his conditioning is also key to Penn, who has acknowledged relying more on his natural talent that hard work earlier in his career. After losing to Matt Hughes, he rededicated himself to training. Perhaps too much so for the St. Pierre fight, he believes.
"If I had to say OK now what mistakes did I make coming into that fight, I would say - it's going to sound funny - but I would say that I started training too earlier. I trained too long. I started training five months out for the fight because it was my dream fight, I was very motivated about that fight. I think I started training too earlier and I burned myself out a bit coming into the fight."
Penn says that will not be the case this time.
"You hear people say it all the time, I'm in the best shape of my life," Penn said in an interview. "I feel great. I feel like when my body is rested I can pretty much do whatever I want. I'm really happy and I'm really pleased where I am physically and mentally and technically.
"I've got nothing to complain about right now."
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