22.06.06 – Commonwealth Heavyweight Champion Danny Williams has been living in a tent for the last two months preparing for his rematch against Matt Skelton on July 8 at the Millennium Stadium. The Brixton puncher is spending 12 hours a day in an oxygen depravation tent that re-creates atmospheric conditions of 12,000 feet above sea level. The specialised chamber will help Williams to increase red blood cell production allowing more oxygen to reach the muscles and will increase his strength and stamina..
Williams sleeps and rests in the tent and only comes out to train, eat and go to the toilet!
Dynamite Dan turned to this method after he won the first scrap in February but it was such a bruising encounter – that saw Skelton use head butts and elbows whilst Williams resorted to landing a few low blows – that he was physically drained and consulted sports physiologists about how to improve his stamina.
“It’s no fun living in one of these things but if it means that I will knock Skelton out early rather than go through a twelve round war again then I’ll suffer it,” said Williams.
“Basically it’s like living half-way up Mount Everest and you are creating the same conditions as that,”
“I’ve been living in this tent for the last two month and I had one installed in my bedroom at home and now that our training camp has shifted to Doncaster I’ve got one in the hotel room,”
“I’ve had a special version made so that I’ve got a clear window that I can watch TV through and I’ve been playing the Skelton fight again on video but it just frustrates me when I see all the dirty tricks he got away with and I just want to break out of the tent and smash the TV up,”
“Because the air is so thin it felt at first like my lungs were on fire and I couldn’t breath and it was absolute hell but now that I’ve adapted to it I feel fantastic,”
“The sports physiologist monitoring me said that my red blood cell count has gone up by 0.4 which is a 5% increase and my usual resting heart rate is 35-36 beats per minute and now it’s down to 27 bpm which is what you would find in a Kenyan marathon runner not an eighteen stone heavyweight boxer!”
“My trainer Jim McDonnell has noticed a phenomenal improvement in my stamina and strength and reckons by the way I punching and the work-rate that I’m sustaining that the fight won’t even go past six rounds,”
He added, “Lance Armstrong uses this method and it’s helped him win seven Tour de France titles so I can’t see why it won’t help me achieve my dream of winning a world title,”
“I’ll be out of this tent a week before the fight and then I’ll be ready to rock ‘n roll with Skelton.”