Nutritionist bares Manny's secret success in boxing

MANILA, Philippines - It took nutritionist and jeet kune do instructor Teri Tom to unravel seven-time world boxing champion Manny Pacquiao’s secret of success in the ring.

Tom joined conditioning coach Alex Ariza’s team for Pacquiao’s fight against Oscar de la Hoya last year and immediately made an impact in making him stronger and faster despite adding weight to his body. She remained with the team for Pacquiao’s bouts against Ricky Hatton and Miguel Cotto.

“I think Manny is an example of a perfect marriage between hard work and genetics that truly maximizes someone’s potential,” Tom told The STAR from her base in Los Angeles. “Manny’s obviously got some serious fast-twitch muscle fibers - that’s God-given. But he’s also got an incredible work ethic and a brilliant trainer in Freddie Roach.”

Tom, who earned a Master’s degree in nutrition science at California State-Los Angeles after graduating summa cum laude at UCLA, credited Ariza for masterminding Pacquiao’s physical conditioning program.

Ariza said the exercises that he puts Pacquiao through in the gym are elements of a comprehensive program formulated with Tom and another associate Andrea Macias, an expert in isometrics.

“Alex and I are very much on the same page about how to ring training and sports nutrition in boxing to the level of other sports,” she said. “Alex foisted me on to his fighters like Manny and Amir Khan. With Manny, we were initially met with a little resistance. But he knew he had to do something different to move up in weight for the De la Hoya fight so, you do what you got to do.”

Tom said it wasn’t too difficult adjusting Pacquiao’s body weight to the requirements of each fight. The limit for the De la Hoya fight was 147 pounds but it was 140 for Hatton and 145 for Cotto.

“We just monitor his body composition from week to week,” said Tom, a Bruce Lee disciple. “If we see something we don’t like, we change it. Alex is with him, like the show’s title, 24.7, so he’s able to tell me what’s going on with Manny’s intake pretty accurately.”

When Pacquiao trained in Baguio about a month before moving camp to the Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles for the Cotto fight, Tom didn’t make the trip but continued to monitor his body composition.

“Alex called me from the Philippines when they were a few weeks into training and said that it was going to be an amazing fight,” said Tom. “Still, I was surprised at how well he took Cotto’s punches. He just looked so strong in camp, we were pretty confident.”

Tom said what was most impressive in Pacquiao’s showing against Cotto was his ability to take the Puerto Rican’s hardest shots.

“You know what surprised me the most was Manny’s granite chin,” she continued. “He took some shots the likes of which I’ve never seen him take before and he just kept going - completely unfazed. I knew he was tough but I was really impressed by that.”

Tom said working as a team is imperative in providing a fighter total support from the conditioning end.

“When I head over to Wild Card, Freddie will sometimes ask me how I think things are going or give me a heads up about things we should give special attention to,” she explained. “Every week, during camp, I’ll measure body composition. Then, I feed the numbers into a chart and I let Alex know where we’re at. If we see a number we don’t like, then we’ll make a change. But we try not to impose too many changes on a fighter’s diet if we can help it. Just enough to get the desired result. I’ll also go to the conditioning workouts in case I have to fill in for Alex if he’s got fighters with conflicting schedules. I keep up with what he’s doing in case I have to run the workouts if he’s not out of town for a fight.”

In Pacquiao’s diet for De la Hoya, Tom increased the frequency of his meals and switched his supplements. She introduced a protein shake of about 20 grams in the morning before jogging and another 20 grams after his workout in the afternoon. There was also a mid-morning snack, usually an egg sandwich. The goal was to build his muscle mass without diminishing his speed and power. If the proof of the pudding is in the eating, then the diet worked like a charm because Pacquiao was hardly threatened in disposing of De la Hoya.

Tom’s book “Martial Arts Nutrition – A Precision Guide to Fueling Your Fighting Edge” is available in local bookstores. The 192-pager features a chapter on Roach and a profile on Pacquiao with his body composition chart.