When Noah Zuhdi steps between the ropes to defend his WBU Lightweight Championship on June 6 at the OKC Downtown Airpark, casual observers and hardcore fans alike will embrace the battle before them and appreciate the beautiful and brutal representation of determination. They will cheer on two fighters who have made action-packed boxing their calling cards, and they will rightfully respect each punch thrown, each ounce of effort, each drop of sweat perspired.
Yet, most of them will not recognize or contemplate the more important fight: the prolonged battle to prepare.
The fight will not begin Friday night. The fight started in mid-January for Zuhdi. The event that would become “Live Boxing Action Under the Stars” was originally scheduled for March and then postponed to April. Noah began roadwork, a euphemism for long distance running. Two miles of pounding the pavement would turn to three, to five, and then to six miles each day.
Even then, Zuhdi took what could be a peaceful way of training and stepped up the intensity. Focusing on breathing a certain way, cutting times and personal bests—reasons why he has earned the reputation as on one of the best conditioned fighters in the sport.
5:30pm, June 2nd.
Zuhdi makes the one hour trip to Carney, Oklahoma, site of Bo Gibbs Sr.’s gym. Splitting his time here and in Colorado Springs (under the care of trainer Dickie Wood) for this fight was a risky decision, but a proactive one on Zuhdi’s part to maintain balance with boxing, his burgeoning law career, and his family life. The earlier postponements of the fight dictated a unique plan, and he is now making the final rounds of training with the energetic Gibbs, a man of many hats—pastor, entrepreneur, and trainer.
“Bo’s a great positive force in my corner,” Zuhdi explains. “He’s very motivational, very inspiring--knowing what to say and how to say it while delivering it with passion and enthusiasm. He’s made a big impact on this team. He played an integral part in training with me, preparing me for this fight and giving me his all.” Gibbs’ son, Bo
Gibbs Jr., is also in training for his semi-main event bout. He and a couple of curious on-lookers are the only other people in the gym as Zuhdi strikes Gibbs Sr.’s mitts in the ring at a blistering pace for nine rounds. Carney is a small town that has lent its support to the fighters. “There’s always local people here, popping their head in, and it’s warming,” Zuhdi says about the environment. “I appreciate the people here embracing me and welcoming me into their community.
“I’ve always been a big believer in that it’s not where you train. It’s how you train. I believe you can get just as much in Carney, Oklahoma, as you can get in boxing hotbeds in Las Vegas and New York. It’s a really cool setup—it’s less than an hour away from Oklahoma City, but it’s out in the country. There’s nothing around. This solitude—it’s enjoyable.”
Even though he abstains, for the most part, from the law office during fight week, the schedule can still take its toll. After a day of meditation and mental exercises, roadwork, running errands, and a two hour training session with Gibbs where Zuhdi transformed into a fierce pitbull inside the ring, Zuhdi can finally find a place of peace at home with his wife and son…before starting all over again the next day.
In order to be prepared for the fight, Zuhdi needed a good foundation, a supportive team. When making the unique decision to push the fight back two months, he went to his father and promoter, Bill Zuhdi.
“My father has been critical to the success of my career,” Zuhdi observed. “I told him what I wanted, and he immediately came back to me with June 6, Oklahoma City Airpark, date and venue. It made things easy and even a little exciting. The Airpark is really becoming the hotbed for events in OKC.”
After a cooling down period after all of the training in Colorado Springs in February and March, Zuhdi resumed his training regimen in Oklahoma in mid April. Shortly thereafter, the bout with Eduardo Pereira dos Reis was announced. A “no egos allowed” approach seeped into camp as head trainer Dickie Wood accommodated Zuhdi’s needs and laid out a gameplan from Colorado while Gibbs put it into action in Oklahoma with his guidance and enlisting Shadi Shawareb, a local prospect, for sparring. Each part of Team Zuhdi worked selflessly to the goal of a successful fight and event.
Ultimately, the most selfless component of Team Zuhdi may be someone without spotlighted boxing credentials—Zuhdi’s wife, Sara. A lawyer in her own right, her strength has helped him throughout his journey, especially over the course of the last few weeks with Zuhdi’s travel, work, and media demands.
“Sara’s been great,” Zuhdi admitted. “She’s been positive and supportive. She doesn’t just tell me what I want to hear, either. I respect that and how independent she is. She gives me a lot of strength. Without her, none of the things I’ve accomplished would be possible. She’s kind of the unsung hero in all of this. She deserves just as much credit as I do.”
10:00am, June 3rd.
After a long night of rest and typically healthy breakfast at home, Noah proceeds to visualize what’s to come in the next few days. In his mind, mental preparation is just as important as the physical kind. Everything from the ride to Airpark to anticipating the anxieties before fight time to the fight itself is all processed and dissected.
Books and lectures from anyone from basketball coach Phil Jackson to mindfulness guru Jon Kabat-Zinn to motivational speaker Darren Hardy litter his house and car as he hones his mental and meditative skills. Zuhdi learns from them and applies their tenets to his own life not just to prepare for the fight, but to calm him down just a bit. He is legitimately nervous, and that is okay.
“Nerves always play a role during fight week,” Zuhdi relents with a grin. “What really helps calm my nerves is meditating, visualizing the fight. Using that nervous energy to stay confident and thinking positive thoughts—some fighters don’t have to go through all that. Everyone deals with nerves differently. But I believe in meditation, along with funneling the nervous energy. It’s what has been successful with me in the past. It’s what I do.
“I perform my best when I’m nervous, when the stakes are high. Always have, from my basketball career into my boxing career. It’s part of the process. This is how I’m wired, and I’m not trying to change how I’m wired. I’m learning how to use it in a way that helps me. That’s what I’m going to continue to do in boxing and in life’s pursuits.”
The meditation is followed up by a run in the sweltering, humid Oklahoma air. He runs 3 miles in about 19 minutes. He pushes himself but does not overexert himself with only a few days remaining until fight time. Plus, he has already made plans to shadowbox for a healthy 12 rounds later in the day.
After implementing his gameplan for 12 rounds shadowboxing, the lightweight champion calls it a day. He will not be posting Facebook updates of his chiseled physique or how demanding this day or the last 8 weeks have been. However, he will retreat into his own thoughts and stick to helpful reminders as he goes to sleep this night.
Zuhdi says of the last thoughts he’ll have tonight, “I always remind myself this was why, when I was in law school, I put in a full day of class and full day of studying and went to the boxing gym to spar. This is why as a lawyer, as a father, and as a husband, I sacrifice so much of my time in an already busy schedule to train and push myself to the limit. It’s to put myself into situations like this. All of these sacrifices I’ve made for so many years, this is why I did it—to make the most of my opportunity like the one on Friday.”
