If you think, switching to a more plant-based nutrient-rich diet, is for skinny hippies you are in the wrong decade! One of the big fights coming up in the next couple of months is Manny Pacquiao vs. The Vegan and it’s going to be a showdown of a new kind– well, not as new as it might have been even just a few years ago. It is the fight between a traditional meat-eater (typically associated with athletic ability) and a 100% plant-eater, who is creating a new image for athletic ability. Why else would this be news?
Things have been changing over the last several decades–particularly in the last five years since the nutrient-rich revolution began. People are beginning to make the Switch to Rich-The Nutrient Rich Way to Eat, and to near vegan or flexitarian plant-based diets, or 100% plant-based vegan diets because the health, performance, and disease-free living benefits are becoming clearer. In an economy where it still is survival of the fittest, from the boxer and the MMA fighter right on over to the non-athlete Joe and Jane, who are beginning to eat a plant-based “nutrient-rich” diet.
The Wall Street Journal said…
Pretty soon the boxer will pass on the burger. He will deny the cheese. He will skip the sushi that he adores, and he will not—as Sylvester Stallone did so memorably and nauseatingly in “Rocky”—break five eggs into a glass, and slurp them down raw. Instead, the boxer will embrace the quinoa. He will thrill to the avocado and befriend the almond. He will enjoy the spinach, the tofu, and the $7.95 organic smoothie that bears his not-yet-household name.
The Vegan is Timothy Bradley Jr., and on June 9, in Las Vegas, after several months of strict training and eating a 100% plant-based diet, this undefeated boxer plans on having the fight of his life—he wants to defeat the world-renowned champion, Manny Pacquiao.
Here’s what Timothy Bradley Jr had to say…
“Dude, I swear, it’s the most unbelievable feeling ever,” Bradley said. It was Thursday morning in New York City, and Bradley, 28, was riding to a news conference in a slick SUV, praising the diet he believes gives him a pronounced advantage in the ring.
“The reason I love it so much is that I feel connected to the world,” Bradley said. He was wearing a charcoal gray suit jacket, a purple dress shirt, and jeans. “My thoughts are clearer, crisp. I am sharp. Everything is working perfectly—I feel clean. It’s a weird feeling, man. It’s just a weird feeling.”
Bradley, who lives and trains in Palm Springs, Calif., first began experimenting with a vegan diet in 2008, when he was getting ready for a title fight in London, England. An adviser suggested that a plant-based nutrient-rich 100% vegan regimen would give him more energy and endurance. Bradley was then given a list of foods to consider.
By his own description a “meat and potatoes guy,” Bradley was staggered to feel an almost immediate surge in preparation and competition. “I was able to outwork a lot of my opponents,” he said.
“He really liked it,” said Bradley’s trainer, Joel Diaz. “His body felt different.”
Since then, Timothy Bradley—nicknamed “Desert Storm”—stuck by a 100 percent plant-based vegan diet as he became junior welterweight champion and built an unblemished record of 28-0. For three months leading up to a, bout, he will eat vegan, with no exceptions. This is what he intends for his MGM Grand showdown with Pacquiao on the second Saturday in June.
Bradley also noted that…,
“I’ll still be a vegan even after the weigh-in,”
So you see, even the pros are getting on the bandwagon and making the switch to a plant-based nutrient-rich diet, whether or not they go 100% vegan or not, and as you can see by the picture, I don’t think Timothy Bradley is worried about whether or not he’s getting enough protein!