Fight week: what to do and what to stop doing

Nothing you do in the last seven days makes you fitter — adaptation takes longer than that. Everything you do can make you more tired. Volume drops sharply; intensity stays sharp but brief.

Hard sparring stops. Short, sharp pad work and movement keep you connected to the timing without draining you.

If you are more than a couple of kilos out with a week to go, you did not plan the cut — you are now improvising with your own health. Cutting hard and late costs you the fight you were cutting for.

A safe cut is gradual and mostly food, not water. Anything involving saunas, bin bags or not drinking belongs under the supervision of someone qualified, and this app is not that.

• Sleep is the only performance drug that works. Bank it early — the night before, you may not sleep well and that is normal.
• Nothing new. Not food, not kit, not a supplement, not a warm-up you have never done.
• Eat what you have eaten before training all camp. Fight day is not the day to discover something disagrees with you.
• Write the day out hour by hour. A plan is what you fall back on when the nerves arrive.

Build gradually so that you hit one hard round about thirty minutes before you walk. Then keep moving and stay covered up — a body that cools down has to be warmed twice.