The actor's trainer, Corey Calliet, shares the training splits they used to get ready for a second round in the ring.
The last time you saw Michael B. Jordan on the big screen, he was the hulking, enigmatic . The actor's bulk-up was a stunning body transformation, and in previews for Creed II, which premieres on Nov. 21, he doesn't appear to have taken any days off.
To step into the ring for a second round as champion boxer Adonis Creed, however, Jordan needed to drop a few weight classes, but keep a powerful punching profile. He turned to celebrity trainer Corey Calliet to help whip him into world champion shape, and here, Calliet shares details of Jordan's Creed workout plan and how he got so ripped.
Jordan and Calliet have been working out together since 2015, including the first Creed movie. The well-established rapport made it easier to whittle down Jordan's Killmonger mass into a light heavyweight's frame.
"We time our projects, so we used Killmonger to get ready for Creed II," Calliet told MensHealth.com. "I bulked him up on Killmonger, and then used that bulk to shred him down for Creed II."
Calliet's training philosophy for Jordan's movies is simple: Work hard to improve on your previous best efforts. "My goal with [Jordan] is to always look better than the last time he was on [screen]," Calliet said. "We always go until we can't go anymore."
For Creed II, that meant hammering the boxing training into his workout plan hard. Unlike some actors who use real sparring sessions to hone their craft, Jordan's workout focused on his handwork with heavy bags and mitt sessions, as well as perfecting the fight choreography. Bodyweight plyometrics and light weightlifting circuits ("Just the pretty muscles," to keep Jordan lean, according to Calliet) rounded out his Creed II workout plan.
Jordan with Sylvester Stallone in Creed II, who returns to play Rocky Balboa.
Calliet believes Jordan achieved that goal. The trainer says the audience will be able to track the character's body transformation into an even more formidable fighter as he readies for the film's main event: the grudge match with Viktor Drago, the son of the man who killed Creed's father in the ring in Rocky IV.
According to Calliet, however, Creed II's montage isn't just realistic — it's filled with principles they actually used to prep for filming. He programmed those same moves into Jordan's workout to push the training to a fighter's level.
Check out one of the workouts Calliet used to help Jordan reach champ status for Creed II. Jordan performed this circuit after full boxing training and choreography sessions — so for the real Creed experience, hit a heavy bag or shadowbox for a few rounds to get into the ring.