21/05/2026
'I have always been opposed to what is still a common practice of a boxer being taken clean away from an ordinary life when he begins to train for a fight. It is more often than not assumed that a boxer, so as to be 'prepared,' must be taken away to some outlandish place, away from all friends and acquaintances, so as to be free to think of fight, fight, fight from morning till night. It is not supposed that he is competent to think and decide for himself; he is not allowed to do so. He is put to bed; he is wakened up; he has no choice of food, and he is physicked and pampered. l have been in some training camps where fresh air, l have suspected, is not wanted - windows sealed, doors shut tight, and altogether a premium put on an unnatural mode of existence.
Every boxer should have more than an elementary knowledge of hygiene; no boxer should be made a prisoner when in training; no boxer should be called upon to spend his days with gloves, dumb-bells and sparring partners as his sole companions. Training should be regarded not as something extraordinary, but as an everyday business. And it should be done to schedule. There must be method; a time for everything.'
- Georges Carpentier