Last March, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Larry Merchant and doing an in depth interview with him.  As a boxing writer, it was the best experience I’ve had.  And once I was finished with the project, I wanted to do it all over again.  I wanted to find another person in the boxing world who I could talk to at length, and listen to some of his stories and observations about the game.  So I took a bit of time to think about who might be the perfect subject for this interview.  There are a lot of people in the boxing world who I respect and admire, but who did I really, really want to talk to?  One morning, I was driving down the Pacific Coast Highway, mesmerized by the blue of the ocean.  Then out of nowhere, the name came to me and it became abundantly clear who I wanted to interview: Mackie Shilstone.

 

Mackie Shilstone is a fitness guru who has worked with thousands of athletes in a number of different sports.  In the boxing world, he is best known for helping Michael Spinks, Roy Jones, Jr., and Bernard Hopkins move up in weight and capture world championships, as well as helping Riddick Bowe prepare for some of his fights.  But Mackie is not just a strength and conditioning coach.  He is a motivator, he is a strategist, and he is an extremist.  Like the athletes he works with, when Mackie gets it in his mind that he wants to do something, he is willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish the task at hand.  Mackie’s handle is unique, as he positions himself as the first “sports performance and lifestyle management expert” in the country.  It seems that everyone who has trained under Mackie has nothing but praise for his work and the experiences they had with him.  If you check out his website, www.mackieshilstone.com, you will see that a number of people in professional sports credit Mackie for helping them achieve their goals.

 

After doing a bit of research, I sent Mackie an e-mail and requested the opportunity to interview him.  Mackie responded that very day and left the door wide open for whatever questions I might want to ask.  Over the course of two weeks, Mackie took the time to speak with me in between tapings of his television show, “The Fitness Principle with Mackie Shilstone at East Jefferson General Hospital” (which is aired on Wednesday mornings on WWL, an affiliate of CBS), and shared with Boxingtalk some of his experiences in the sport of boxing and his philosophies on training.  In Part 1 of this 5-part interview, Mackie offers an overview of his time in boxing, all the way from Michael Spinks to Bernard Hopkins.

 

DL: You have a strong background in fitness and professional sports, but what was it that brought you to the world of boxing?

 

MS: Well, I was working in a lifestyle management program in 1982 and I was helping, it turns out, a man by the name of Don Hubbard and his wife, who I went on to become very close with.  And Don Hubbard owned part of the Michael Spinks franchise.  He owned it with Butch Lewis.  And Don told me, “You know, Mackie, you’ve helped people with this thing.  I think you could be of great benefit to my fighter Michael Spinks.”  Michael Spinks had just won the light heavyweight title.  I think it was against Johnny Davis.  And I was brought in to bring Michael’s training to the next level. 

 

Michael had to make weight.  And it was hard for him.  Because he was 6’3” making 175.  And they did it the old school way.  You know, turning on the steam and sweating…  And Michael was always told not to drink water and I told him he couldn’t do that.  So I got him to start drinking water and get out of the Army boots that he was running in on the beach.  Joe Frazier did it, so he did it.  I remember I got Michael his first pair of actual running shoes.  They were Nikes.  Anyway, he just breezed through that fight that I helped him with and he felt very good about himself and he liked working with me.  So one thing lead to another and I worked with him for the rest of his light heavyweight career. 

 

And when it came time to move him up to the heavyweight division (to face Larry Holmes), I was the logical one to work with him.  Eddie Futch could not be the trainer for that fight (Eddie Futch also trained Holmes, so Nelson Brison stepped in to train Spinks).  And Eddie Futch and I went on to become famous friends.  But that fight put Michael on the map and he made history.  And it did the same thing for me.  After Michael won that fight, I was taken to Los Angeles and put on every major show.  Michael was on the cover of Sports Illustrated and I was featured in the story.  It put me all over the world, because it had never been done before.  But little did I know that 17 years later I would do it again with Roy Jones, Jr.  But Michael has the heart of a lion and he’s one of the finest men I know.

 

From there, it went on to Riddick Bowe.  Rock Newman had Riddick Bowe and at the time, nobody really wanted Riddick because he had a foot issue.  But Rock took him and brought him to me, because he knew me from working with Michael Spinks.  And I helped Riddick get started with his career.  I was affiliated with AMI St. Jude Medical Center in Kenner, LA and I put him on the fifth floor of the hospital to give him a break on accommodations.  And we trained…  And they went off and they didn’t come back to me again until the Pierre Coetzer fight.  They didn’t have a lot of money.  But this was an eliminator I believe, and if Bowe won this fight he was going to fight Holyfield.  So I worked with him and we won the fight.  And low and behold, we went on to prepare for Holyfield.

 

I helped Michael Spinks, so I knew what it was for a little guy to take on the big guy.  But this was a big guy taking on a little guy.  And I knew that Holyfield thought we were going to tire out by round eight.  So I used some innovative methods and some technology that had never been used before.  And the idea was to be sitting there at round eight…  Holyfield was the warrior and we knew that if we hit him he would try to hit us twice.  So we knew he would come to us.  And that was an advantage because he was the champion.  So we didn’t have to go to him, because his warrior instincts would bring him to us.  Eddie Futch was the trainer, we worked together on the strategy…  He trusted me and he trusted what we were doing.  And it worked.  We took 30 pounds off of Bowe because he was heavy.  He fought at 235 and we doubled up the punches on Holyfield. 

 

I worked with Bowe all the way along and then Bowe got lazy and then Rock took him (elsewhere).  And Rock has been wonderful to me.  Rock Newman is the reason I work with Serena Williams.  I work with Serena Williams, I’ve worked with 3,000 pro athletes…  I’ve worked at every sport.  The San Francisco Giants for ten years, the St. Louis Blues for ten years…  Every major baseball team you could think of.  The NFL, the NBA…  Hundreds of teams.  I’ve worked with overweight celebrities.  I just took 120 pounds off of John Goodman.  I worked with Ozzie Smith.  Ozzie put me in the front row and wrote me into his Hall of Fame speech and it was one of the greatest moments of my life. 

 

So getting back to the boxing, Bowe just didn’t want to work that hard.  He went to meet the Pope, he took a few months off…  They didn’t use me.  They went and got Holyfield’s former trainer, who was a body builder.  And Bowe lost his rematch to Holyfield.  He was just big and slow…  So they came back to me and called me.  And I said, “You want me, you gotta pay the price.  And the price means you have to come to me and do it my way.”  So they came to me and we beat Holyfield again in that Bowe-Holyfield trilogy.

 

When I finished up with Bowe, I was kind of burned out.  We would have to bring him down from 267 and training camp would go on three months and I just couldn’t take it anymore.  So I sat out for a while, but finally I got a call out of the blue from Roy Jones, Jr. through his people.  And they wanted to know if I was interested in doing something that hadn’t been done in 17 years, help Roy Jones, Jr. move up to the heavyweight division to take on John Ruiz.  And I said, “Well, sure.”  And I worked with Roy and Roy is an incredible human being, both as a person and as an athlete.  We developed a great relationship and we beat Ruiz.  And then I sat out again and all of a sudden Bernard Hopkins called.  And he wants to move up to face Antonio Tarver. 

 

So when you think about it, over the years, I’ve worked side by side with a lot of the great trainers in boxing.  I’ve worked with Eddie Futch, I’ve worked with Nelson Brison, I’ve worked with Alton Merkerson, I’ve worked with Naazim Richardson…  I’ve come a long way.  I’m 60 years old.  I’ve worked with over 3,000 pro athletes, I’ve written six books…  I’ve worked in every major sport.  I get called in when you’re facing adversity.  I’m “Special Forces”.  They have someone to do the day to day, but I’m Special Forces.  When they get into trouble, I’m the one they call.  

N

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