How Boxer Bruce ‘Shu Shu’ Carrington Stays at the Top of his Game

Kept out of the ring, this world-class boxer still stayed in fighting shape.

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No matter your sport, competing for your country on the biggest stage in the world is the ultimate goal. And while many athletes claim it’s the culmination of a life-long dream, boxer Bruce Carrington has the video proof to back it up.

“I have little videos from when I was six years old,” says Carrington, “Saying: I'm going to go, I'm going to take over, and I’m going to knock all my opponents out.”

A decade and a half later, Carrington is still living the dream he first had as a kid in Brooklyn, NY, nicknamed “Shu Shu.” Though it was just a family name at first—mostly to avoid confusion with his father, Bruce Sr.—he still gets announced as “Bruce ‘Shu Shu’ Carrington” when he steps into the ring. But the kid stuff stops once the bell sounds. The now 22-year-old Carrington packs the kind of power and skill that portends a standout professional career. He originally planned to turn pro after earning a gold medal this summer in Tokyo, yet even though competition is delayed until next summer, the golden goal remains the same.

“I just want to be known as one of the greatest boxers to ever put on a pair of gloves.”

Carrington’s path to glory seemed simple. As a top amateur prospect who has trained with the US team for years, Carrington was the top contender to fight for his country in the Bantamweight division. He was even an alternate for Rio four years ago, so when the calendar turned to 2020, Carrington was prepped and ready to head back to South America, this time for a qualifying tournament in Argentina where he could punch his ticket to Tokyo.

But a week before Carrington and his teammates were set to fly south from their training center in Colorado, the pandemic struck. In quick succession, the qualifier was cancelled, and Carrington was sent home to Long Island, NY—already one of the areas hit hardest by COVID-19.

Within days, Carrington’s entire mentality shifted from being hyper-focused on competing to adjusting to the strange, new reality of the pandemic, both as an athlete and a person. Shacked up with his parents and two siblings, with no heavy bags in sight and unable to even use their gated community’s gym facilities, Carrington did almost no training the first month. So just like millions of Americans who struggled to find a way to exercise while trapped at home, Carrington turned to a familiar source for inspiration and motivation: Instagram.

“Seeing all of friends and teammates still working out, still doing what they needed to do, it kept me motivated as well,” he says. “And seeing all the variations they did, all the different workouts. When I try something I’ve never done before and it works for me, I’m going to continue to do it.”

Once he got used to wearing a mask, Carrington ventured outside and got back to work. Cardio is crucial for fighters, so Carrington ran circles around the building’s parking lot—as many hard laps as he could handle in 30 minutes, plus shuttle runs and sprints. Carrington had to get a little more creative for strength training, like doing bicep curls with heavy garbage bags: “Hey, if you have lemons, make lemonade!” he says with a laugh.

He may mean it literally, since Carrington observes a plant-based diet and went through plenty of lemons and other produce while stuck at home. Carrington and his father, Bruce Sr., both changed their diets a few years ago after stumbling on an eye-opening documentary. At first, Carrington dealt with the unpleasant detoxifying effects of cutting out meat, and even questioned if the new diet would be detrimental to his boxing career.

“But then, I felt a total difference in my energy, started training even harder. I was like, how am I losing weight but getting so much stronger?” he says. “I started to realize that a lot of the strongest animals in the world are vegan. Gorillas are vegan, rhinos are vegan, elephants are vegan. And then once I saw how I was performing in my fights, it was a no-brainer for me.”

Cutting weight is one of the toughest parts of boxing, but thanks to his diet Carrington dropped from 141 pounds to 125 with very little effort. For many fighters, losing that amount of weight can sap your punching power and even make you more susceptible to the knockout. For Shu Shu, it’s had the opposite effect. He brought the same natural power and size from the higher weight class down to his new division, and finished 2019 on an impressive five-bout win streak.

“I was just so much faster and so much stronger, and a lot of the guys at that weight, I’m naturally bigger than them. So fighting the 125-pound guys—aw, man. I was bullying them in there!” he says with a laugh.

Maintaining a specialized diet is difficult under any circumstances, but Carrington believes it is important to understand the benefits of what he puts into his body. He’s kept with the plant-based diet in recent years because he sees the positive effects it has had on his training and lifestyle. During quarantine, with stores overloaded and long lines just to enter the market, Carrington would wake up at five AM in order to shop for his family. “It was like a race to get groceries, to get everything I needed at one time to keep up with my diet,” he says. “We just stuck with the game plan.”

A typical training day in quarantine would start with a nutrient-rich breakfast like oatmeal, made with brown sugar, a pinch of cinnamon, and almond milk. Carrington would head outside for a morning workout, followed by a veggie stir-fry for lunch, plenty of TV and video games with his little brother to relax, and a frozen vegan meal for dinner. On some nights, as a reward for all the strict eating and training, Carrington and his dad would indulge in the ultimate cheat meal for all herbivores, be they rhino or human: vegan pizza.

“We get one called the Seitan Bacon Ranch and it tastes so good. They really have this thing down to a science. Me and my dad can each eat a box of pizza,” he laughs.

All that tasty nut cheese and wheat gluten was no match for garbage bag curls and parking lot laps. Now back training with teammates in Colorado, Carrington felt completely prepared for the amped-up exercise and the altitude. And while running outdoors surrounded by mountains is definitely better than dodging parked cars on Long Island, social distancing guidelines mean Carrington still hasn’t been able to hit a pad or heavy bag, let alone another fighter. When Carrington talks about getting back to sparring, you can practically hear the smile on his face.

“I have not sparred yet,” says Carrington. “But I’m definitely looking forward to it. Somebody needs to get punched in the face.”

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