The 43-year-old machine shed a fifth of his bodyweight before lifting a prestigious boxing title.
Juggling a demanding full-time job, a busy family life and a punishing exercise regime might be too much for some people.
Not Michael Simon.
The 43-year-old just shed a fifth of his bodyweight before bringing a prestigious belt back to STMA in Scours Lane. Not to mention smashing a few boxing pads to smithereens in the process.
Michael talked us through his prep, his mindset and why STMA – Reading is the place to come if you want to win big.
“I came to boxing late. I started with Ultra White Collar Boxing seven years ago after my colleague at the time – STMA coach Graham Corker – said it would be a good way to raise money for Cancer Research, test myself, and honour an uncle and close friend I’d lost to the disease. It was either that or a Tough Mudder or Half-Marathon. Boxing won!
“After my first fight, I was hooked. I went on to win seven, and lose three, always learning a lot and honing my training regimes in the process — although the pandemic caused a lot of disruption.
“I was put forward for South Moreton Boxing Club’s Oxfordshire title after I was invited to spar at the club. The organiser Joe Howard was happy with what he saw so asked if I wanted to fight for their title at 81kg — Light Heavyweight. We had a few changes of opponent, but eventually I went in against the tricky Anderson Galvao on Saturday, October 28th.”
“The fight followed A LOT of prep. Early this year, coming out of my winter cave(!), I was well over 100kg. I’d weighed 83kg for my last fight in October 2022, so had really piled on the pounds through the colder months.
“But on my weigh-in the day before the fight I hit the scales at 79.4kg. Over seven years I’ve tried a range of diets and tricks to lose weight (including dehydration weight cuts), but for the last three fights I’ve found a system that works for me. I reduce carbs drastically, especially at the beginning of the camp just to get my body used to using fat for fuel. I’ve found though that if you maintain this approach for too long you find yourself lacking energy in sessions which is counter-productive. I don’t eat before my first session of the day (whether that’s strength, boxing conditioning or running) and see breakfast as a reward to be looked forward to – usually porridge with whey protein. I’ve learned that for any subsequent sessions I do in the day it’s critical to be fuelled to get the most out of the training/sparring so I’ll eat some yoghurt and banana – maybe with a few oats – about an hour to 90 minutes before I start. Typically, I eat a salad with a lot of protein like chicken or fish for lunch and for dinner after training a similar protein but with lots of leafy veg like spinach or cabbage and pseudo-carbs like pulses.
“Diet sorted, I make sure my training is bang-on. I try to run three times a week, spar two-to-three times, and strength train with boxing-specific exercises focusing on rotation and explosiveness, with ab/core work every day. Each week I do at least three boxing-specific conditioning sessions with Graham’s early morning class at STMA. I also do a lot of walking and use my watch to set step goals for ‘calories burnt’.
“By the time I got into the ring for the title fight I was very confident. I’d had superb support from STMA and my main sparring partners Julian Polk and Ben Sutherland, plus too many others to mention. Tommy Johnson and Graham got me in excellent technical and physical shape, Dan Eden and Dan Stevenson helped me perform at my peak and I just felt I had a huge team behind me. Plus I wanted to emulate Julian’s recent championship win — his achievements were a big reminder to me to not rest on my laurels.
“I walked into the ring knowing I’d left no stone unturned during the camp. And I needed every ounce of that training because it was a tough fight against an elusive opponent with great power and excellent resilience.
“Anderson was very quick to get out of the danger zone. We’re both counter punchers, and the first round was cagey, although I was trying to catch him out with feints and jabs and I did manage to catch him with a few light shots. In the second round I managed to reach him and land but during an exchange in the corner, got caught with a left hook that resulted in a flash knockdown. I finished the round strongly and felt composed when I got back to my corner.
“For the following three rounds I made sure I outscored him, controlled the centre of the ring and didn’t get fazed by his dancing antics whilst he remained on the outside. He caught me to the head and body at times but my work rate and scoring rate worked well for me. We clashed heads during the fourth round and either another head clash or left hook opened up a lovely cut at the very end of the fight in the fifth.
“During the breaks Tommy encouraged me to keep my right hand up to avoid getting caught with his left. I had to make sure I kept out of the way of his dangerous shots during the action as he certainly could hit hard and to give him his credit, he took the shots I landed well.
“I often felt frustrated with his style during the fight but kept my cool and boxing head. After five rounds, I was sure I’d won, but when the fight goes to points you’re never really happy until the referee raises your hand. Knowing the fight was for a belt it was definitely one of the most satisfying moments I’ve experienced in boxing. Having my wife, friends and gym-mates there made it all the sweeter.
“Since then people have asked me for advice. Here it is: you have to be relentless in your approach to boxing, you can’t let yourself imagine your opponent could be doing more than you. Every week I want to see an improvement in my athletic performance as well as my technical proficiency. You can’t make excuses, you must do everything you can to be fitter, sharper and better than your opponent. And if you really want to push yourself, get down to STMA. We make winners here!”