MORGAN CAMPBELL
SPORTS REPORTER TORONTO STAR
Three storeys above Queen St. E, and half a pound over the super bantamweight limit, Steve Molitor stands shirtless in his strength trainers’ studio.
When he flexes, every muscle in his body ripples. Muscles you usually only see in anatomy textbooks are visible here.
“Holy sh–! Look at the striations in his traps,” says Chris Smits, one of the Sarnia fighter’s strength trainers.
“Lookin’ good, man,” says Marty Smits, Chris’s brother and business partner.
Marty then rhymes off a long list of vitamins, herbs and supplements and asks Molitor if he’s been using them. Molitor nods.
“I leave no stone unturned,” he says. “Trust me.”
Tonight, Molitor (25-0, 10 KOs) faces Mexico’s Ricardo Castillo (33-4, 22 KOs) at Casino Rama, staking his IBF 122-pound title and climaxing a training camp where he used everything from cinder blocks to nutritional supplements to gain an edge.
The Smits brothers, who apprenticed under former Maple Leaf and renowned fitness freak Gary Roberts, say Molitor gets a lot out of his body because of what he puts into it.
“You don’t put unleaded fuel in a Formula One car,” Marty Smits says. “He’s a finely-tuned engine. He needs a finely-tuned diet so he can perform at the highest level.”
Thirty years ago Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky guzzled raw eggs to train for his title fight with Apollo Creed, but it’s not that simple anymore. When preparing for a fight, Molitor subsists on a high-tech organic diet designed to deliver maximum nutrition with minimum calories. His daily intake includes:
HMS 90: a protein extracted from unpasteurized milk, Chris Smits calls it the “Lamborghini” of protein supplements. It aids muscle recovery and boosts the immune system.
Buffalo and ostrich meat: they’re high in protein and contain virtually no fat.
Blue Green Algae: exactly what it sounds like – a pungent-smelling green goop that helps balance the body’s Ph levels.
Molitor’s intake is exotic and expensive (HMS 90 retails for about $100 a box), but Chris Smits says Molitor can’t expect to be a soldier in the ring if he eats like a civilian.
“If you give yourself proper nutrition and raw food, your body will flourish. Steve’s a testament,” Chris Smits says.
In training, the shift in nutrition enables Molitor to work harder and recover more quickly, and long-term better training has built a better body. Molitor says he’s much leaner now, at 122 pounds, than he was five years ago fighting at 118.
“I feel a lot smoother and a lot more alert,” he says. “And I feel healthier day-to-day.”
And in the ring Molitor says his focus on training and nutrition means he’s never tired.
“I did nine rounds with (Takalani) Ndlovu and I was just getting warmed up,” he says, referring to his title defence last July. “I do a lot of things a regular boxer doesn’t do. Everything that helps me out 1 per cent adds up at the end of the day. Results speak for themselves in this world.”
mcampbell@thestar.ca
