I’m Francis Ngannou’s trainer – from food to workouts, here’s how he’s getting ready for his showdown with boxing great Anthony Joshua this weekend

UFC champion turned boxer Francis Ngannou is training up to nine hours a day and fueling up on “clean, exotic food” ahead of his blockbuster fight this week, his trainer revealed to DailyMail.com.

Ngannou, 37, will fight former British heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua on March 8 and has been training two to three times a day for up to three hours in recent months.

The Predator’s head coach, two-time world boxing champion Dewey Cooper, told DailyMail.com that Ngannou is “very disciplined” and “self-motivated” heading into the all-star matchup after shocking the world with a stellar performance in his boxing debut against the undefeated Tyson Fury.

“It’s going to be electric,” he said.

And while Ngannou has varied tastes, the fighter is an “exotic eater” who prefers “very clean, gourmet” meals packed with fish, chicken, vegetables and a rainbow of spices.

But the 6-foot-4, 257-pound heavyweight does like to cheat with a slice of cheesecake every now and then.

The bout comes just months after Ngannou was defeated by British heavyweight Tyson Fury, which Cooper said was an unfair ruling.

“He beat Tyson Fury fair and square so the judges could take it away from us,” he said. ‘No one does what he did. No one expected him to even compete with the great Tyson Fury that night.”

“We had a tough camp for Tyson Fury. He worked very hard. And it will be the same for this fight.”

“He will have fought two of the top three heavyweight boxers in the world in his first two fights. This has never been done before. That’s a mystery.’

‘He feels confident. He feels good. He knows he can complete the full 30 minutes of the fight.”

Cooper said he feels specially equipped to lead Ngannou to victory and called himself a “lifelong martial artist.”

He began his more than 30-year fighting career with Muay Thai kickboxing at the age of nine, followed by professional fights in both boxing and kickboxing.

This included 25 professional boxing fights and three professional MMA matchups. He also won two world championships and was inducted into the Masters Hall of Fame in 2008.

“I’m like a Renaissance man when it comes to fighting,” he said. “I was honestly born to do this.”

‘This is really my passion. I don’t think there are many guys who are more energetic and motivated than me.”

Cooper is also chairman of Team Combat Leaguethe first professional martial arts competition to feature both male and female fighters.

Cooper said that since the Fury fight, Ngannou has been in a training camp for 12 weeks, which includes two to three training sessions a day, six days a week. These can last from an hour and 45 minutes to three hours.

‘He’s doing a lot of sports at the moment. We’re trying to do the most we can right now to really stress the body and prepare him,” Cooper said.

These include high-intensity sparring exercises to increase his stamina and endurance. On conditioning days he has to do ‘a whole series of exercises’.

Many of Ngannou’s conditioning moves are “high-frequency explosive plyometric exercises.”

According to Harvard University, plyometrics involves short, intense bursts of activity aimed at building strength, coordination, agility and flexibility. These usually target the muscles of the lower body.

Common examples of plyometrics include side jumps, skipping rope, and forward jumps.

Cooper noted that Ngannou’s routine often includes medicine ball bumps, push-ups, box jumps, squats, ladder exercises, high-knee exercises, hills and side jumps.

“There are so many things we do,” he said. ‘It’s a very, very tough regime. There aren’t many people who can train like he trains.”

‘Every day is important. Every training is crucial.’

In between training sessions, Ngannou focuses on helping his body heal with stretches, muscle massages and a dip in the jacuzzi.

The length of training camp depends on when fights are announced. For example, the camp to prepare for the Fury fight lasted about 16 weeks, while this camp lasted 12 weeks.

When he’s not training, Ngannou fuels up with a mix of lean meat, fish, vegetables and herbs.

Lean meats like chicken and turkey are crucial for building and maintaining muscle because they are packed with protein.

When protein is consumed, the body breaks it down into amino acids, which are used to repair and rebuild muscle tissue damaged during intense exercise.

Furthermore, a 2021 study in the Journal of Nutrition found that compounds in dark leafy vegetables called nitrates improved vascular and muscle function.

Spices like turmeric have also been shown to suppress muscle pain and stress.

Cooper also hinted that Ngannou often chooses traditional Cameroonian dishes such as beef tail, rice bowls with black beans and mango, and fufu, made from the starchy root vegetable yuca.

“He’s a very exotic eater,” Cooper said, noting that Ngannou prefers “clean, gourmet” food.

Cooper did not specify how many calories Ngannou consumes each day, but it could be significantly higher than the commonly recommended daily limit of 2,000 calories to maintain his 6-foot-4 physique.

For example, Joshua’s team revealed in 2018 that the fighter burns between 3,000 and 5,000 calories depending on how close he gets to a fight.

However, the towering 6-foot-4, 265-pound Fury only consumes about 2,700 to 3,200 calories, his nutritionist George Lockwood previously told DailyMail.com.

‘You burn a lot of calories. “There’s a lot of energy being used,” Cooper said.

However, Ngannou does like to cheat with a slice of cheesecake every now and then, although he is largely “very responsible” during camp.

‘This is hard work. But it doesn’t matter how you feel, it’s what you do,” Cooper said. “And he pushes hard, and we do our best to motivate him and push him.”

“He’s got the right mentality, the right personality, and that’s why he’s so great.”