The preparation for any high-stakes fight should be just as demanding as the 12-round bout itself. This is the thinking of Andre Ward, the unified light heavyweight titleholder. After defeating then-undefeated Sergey Kovalev in their first meeting last Nov. 19, Ward (31-0, 15 KO’s) was stunned by those questioning the legitimacy of his unanimous-decision victory. Kovalev (30-1-1, 26 KO’s) blamed the loss on the fact that all three judges were American. There were some even using the term “robbery” to describe the outcome. Ward entered training camp for Ward-Kovalev 2: “The Rematch” — set for June 17 (HBO Pay-Per-View) at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas — reminding himself to have fun but also train with the mindset to leave no questions this time when the final bell rings. We caught up with the champ before the bout to discuss his training camp routine, recovery after a fight and his hurl-inducing secret nutritional weapon.

What’s your daily routine during training camp?

If it’s a day where I’m doing some type of cardio and a gym workout in the same day, I have to get up at 5 a.m. and I’m out the door by 5:30 to whatever location I need to be at. If I’m running the hill, a track workout with my intervals, and sprints, or a pool workout, I like to be there right around 6 and I’m finishing up right around 7. I come back to my condo and I’m eating breakfast by 7:30 to 8. Breakfast consists of some good, complex carbohydrates. I love different kinds of oatmeal with dry or regular fruit and some lean protein.

It can be anything from scrambled eggs to an egg omelet. I’m really big on my beet and green juices. I lay around from about 9 to 1 and then I’ll start getting ready for the gym; I need to be there at 3. I’ll get up and eat my lunch and that would be some type of fortified good salad with some nutrient-dense, high-quality food that is going to give me fuel for that workout. I eat that, pack my bag, head to the gym and we’ll be in that gym from 3 to 6. I try to stay no longer than three hours and that’s warming up and cooling down. I drink a recovery drink on my way home to start repairing my body with some type of protein and carbohydrate mix.

When I get home, I settle down for 30 minutes or so. It’s kind of hard for me to eat right after a really intense workout. Dinner is a high-quality protein. It can be anything from a bison burger with sweet potatoes and a big salad. I eat a lot of fish during training camp, so dinner can also be sea bass, salmon with rice, potatoes and pasta. My secret weapon started off being liver salad. You know liver is not tasty at all but it’s extremely nutrient-dense with protein. I got to a point where I couldn’t stomach the liver salad, so we started doing liver shakes. So every night after dinner about an hour before bed, I’ll drink a liver shake.

Wait, a liver shake?

It’s raw liver blended with bananas, cherries and I’ll hold my breath and drink it down. That’s like my nightcap and I go to bed and wake up and do it all over again the next day.

The thought of that concoction makes me queasy.

[Laughs] Literally, we’re making sacrifices.

How does your diet differ from training to when you can just relax and be Andre Ward, the husband and father?

[Laughs] Listen, I try to be a healthy individual year-round. Right after a fight, I’ve probably gone 10 weeks of literally eating everything that I’m supposed to and not slipping one time. But when that fight is over, my body is craving saturated fats, sugars and I’ll treat myself for several weeks after the fight to whatever I want. When I start seeing those abs turn into a little bit of flab and that starts sticking out, then it’s time to start getting back in the groove of eating right. I actually enjoy eating right and feeling good. It’s amazing because when I do that, it really shows me how bad some of the stuff we eat is. If I’m feeling one way for 10 weeks and I switch and my body is like boom; I’m literally putting poison in my body with the sugars and all the things I’m not supposed to have. Then when I switch back to a more consistent diet, things level back out. I like to be kind of leveled out as a whole with an occasional cheat day here and there, but I definitely give myself some time right after the fight just as a celebration. I don’t party or anything like that but me and my wife will go out, eat, spend time with the kids, and get frozen yogurt and that’s how we party.

You moved up from super middleweight to light heavyweight in 2015. Can you explain the nutritional demand to hit that weight and maintain it?

It’s funny because I was at 168 pounds in the super middleweight division for many years and at a certain point – because I wanted to be a multi-divisional champion – it was hard to get a lot of the other 168-pounders in the ring to fight for whatever reason. Also, I was getting older so it was getting harder to make that weight. When I made the decision to go up, I realized that I wasn’t really going up. I’m going up as far as the weight class from 168 pounds to 175 but I’m walking around at 185 to190 pounds. When I had that revelation, and I was sitting with my doctor, my team and we’re looking at my body fat, we all came to the conclusion that I wasn’t moving up. I’m just losing weight to get to 175.

I know I’m not going to be the biggest guy and I’m not going to look the most imposing but I’m going to be in tip-top shape and I’m going to be strong. If you look at my last fight, my opponent looked bigger, but he wasn’t stronger and I’m ok with that. Boxing is the only sport where you have to strip your body down during an eight-week training camp, and you’re losing weight, but you can’t put back the fuel like you need to and then you tell your body to go perform at your highest for fight night. When I moved up, it was actually a benefit for me because I’m healthier. I remember the first training camp I had at 175 and the people at the gym were asking me why I was so happy and it was because I could eat! Life was just happier. I was able to put out in the gym and put it all right back in. I’m happy I moved up and there wasn’t really any major tweaks. It was just being able to eat more, which my body needed because I’m putting out on a day-to-day basis.

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What are you eating the day of the fight?

I’m a big oatmeal and eggs guys. So breakfast will be oatmeal, eggs and turkey sausage or turkey bacon. That will hold me. I love to take walks the day of the fight. So I’ll walk the food off, come lay down, nap, read and just relax. Lunchtime, I’ll have a lean piece of chicken with a good complex carbohydrate. Maybe, rice or pasta at that point and a good vegetable that won’t be hard to break down like steamed spinach, which I love. My last meal has been the same for the last four to five years. I always get a big piece of fish that’s not hard to break down but will give me the fuel I need with the same type of carbohydrates and some more steamed spinach. Anything after that and it’s probably a [protein] bar right before we leave for the arena. I’m fueled because I have three good meals sitting on me and I’m fully hydrated after sipping water all day. I’m ready to go at that point.

Another thing the public doesn’t get to see is the recovery aspect after a fight. What are some of the things you're doing outside of rest to heal and get your body back to feeling right?

I had to learn this the hard way. I used to come home and just lay in the bed. That was not the right thing to do because I would try and get out the bed and everything would lock up. All the lactic acid is trapped and I’m not doing anything to get that out and get my body moving. I got an idea from my pastor [former NFL running back] Napoleon Kaufman. What they’ll do in football is they’ll play on Sunday, come in on Monday and have a light lift, run a little bit and they’ll take the following day off. I kind of took that model, and I did it after the last fight and posted a picture to my Instagram. As sore as I was after the first fight, the next morning, I got on the treadmill and did a light jog. I got a massage and I keep those going for about a week straight to flush all the lactic acid and toxins out.

What can we expect to see from you on June 17?

Honestly, I’m going to have a lot more fun; it’s that simple. Sometimes, you can try to be too perfect and you hinder your gifts. You try to be too technical, too perfect and you look back and see that you were not flowing, and doing what you needed to be doing and that’s what I got back to. I don’t know what I’m going to do on June 17. I couldn’t even tell you but I feel like it’s going to be a tremendous performance, a great show and it’s going to be a totally different individual Kovalev saw the first time around. That, I can guarantee.

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