Canelo Alvarez rival Mateo Tapia and model girlfriend Krystle Mollie reveal unique diet

No red meat. No dairy. No dinner. Aussie boxer Mateo Tapia reveals the hardcore diet regimen he has put in place in order to prepare for the best in the world.

EMBARGOED UNTIL NOV 26, Boxer Mateo Tapia and Actress/Model girlfriend Krystle Mollie looking fit and ripped on their unique diet of one main meal per day Picture Christian Anstey

A unique one-meal-a-day program is fuelling one of Australia’s best young boxers towards a showdown with the biggest star in the sport.

Mateo Tapia is already world-rated in the division ruled by Canelo Alvarez, and hopes his strict diet will eventually lead to a showdown with the champion.

Tapia, 24, has been following a diet recommended by his actor/model girlfriend Krystle Mollie for the past three years.

The couple do not eat red meat or dairy, have junk food only once a year, and their “cheat meal” is homemade chicken wings.

It’s a dramatic turnaround from when Tapia first started boxing while also working on construction sites.

“I was working on site six years ago and eating whatever was there at the local shop, probably a chicken burger, fried stuff, then you’d go to training and wouldn’t feel the best,” Tapia said.

Tapia and Mollie looking fit and ripped on their unique diet of one main meal per day. Picture: Christian Anstey

“I didn’t have anyone looking after my nutrition at the time, I didn’t know what to do.

“Then ever since I met Krystle, she’s taught me what works, how much fuel you need, what you eat gets the most out of your training.

“And not just in training, but your life in general. You’re changing the way you eat as a lifestyle, not just for a camp or a fight.”

Now, Tapia will eat three dates soon after he wakes at 4.30am, before holding personal training classes.

He then has his own, intense boxing training before eating his one main meal of the day, a vegetable-heavy lasagne using eggplants for the sheets, or lentil soup with rice, cooked by Mollie.

It doesn’t sound like much, but Tapia says the nutrients packed into the meal keeps him going for most of the day.

Instead of dinner, Tapia will have a frozen berry smoothie. If he gets hungry in the evening, he’ll snack on rice crackers with hummus.

“I can last longer, I feel like I have more energy and I’m more confident in the ring because I know I have the fitness and the right diet behind me,” Tapia said.

“It gives me that extra one per cent more confidence that I know I’m doing stuff right to win the fight.

“And the way I feel in the ring, I feel sharp, everything is open and clear, I can think well.

“It’s a game of longevity with boxing. The longer you can last, the longer you can stay fresh and not put your body through those miles, you can be 40 and still compete.”

The undefeated Tapia (15-0, 9KO) is ranked No.12 in the world for superstar Alvarez’s WBA super-middleweight title.

Alvarez has a net worth of $266 million and is the biggest draw in combat sports.

The Mexican-born Tapia and Mexican Alvarez would have a sellable storyline if they were ever to clash, but Tapia must continue his winning ways to have a chance at the man targeted by all and sundry in the fight game.

Canelo Alvarez celebrates after defeating Callum Smith during their super middleweight title bout. Picture: Getty Images

Mollie, who has appeared in crime drama Underbelly and 2009 drama film The Boys Are Back starring Clive Owen, changed her diet nine years ago.

“The turning point was that I had severe depression, and I did not know how much your diet affects your mood and your mental health,” Mollie said.

“I’m the biggest bookworm, and have to know everything, so I read so much on it, studied and after seven years I was finally able to come off antidepressants.

“And I have stayed off them ever since because of the diet I eat.

“Eating a whole foods, predominantly plant-based diet really brings out the best in you, it’s good for your B vitamins and the serotonin in your brain.

“I was heavily in the modelling and acting industry, that was a lot of getting constant measurements taken and under-eating, and then I’d go binge.

“You’d be starving and you’d be told by agents you need to make cuts and measurements and sample sizes, so then come the weekend you’d have whatever you want, but it’s overkill.

“I’m a tiny girl so I would eat whatever I wanted, then starve myself during the week. That yoyo effect on your mental health, on your brain function, let alone your body, for other people it could have been minor, but because of the issues I was going through it exacerbated it, made it 10 times worse.

The couple have both found great rewards from their strict diet. Picture Christian Anstey

“And because of that, it was like, ‘Let’s just fix it with a tablet every day’.

“I looked at it and wondered, ‘Am I going to be taking a tablet every day for the rest of my life?’”

Mollie, inspired by two books - Plant Proof by Simon Hill, and Fibre Fuelled by Will Bulsiewicz - went off antidepressants and has stayed off.

She now also works as a swimming instructor and organises all meals for herself and Tapia.

The boxer is now able to make the 76kg super-middleweight limit comfortably, without having to crash diet in the final weeks.

“I was stuck in the old-school ways where you starve yourself to make weight in camp, it’s not healthy for your body,” Tapia said.

“I used to be losing 10kg in 10 weeks before a fight, now I’m usually close to weight most of the time walking around.

“I used to crave a can of coke, that would be my thing. But now we’ve been eating clean for so long, my craving is bubbles, so I make soda water at home.”

Originally published as Canelo Alvarez rival Mateo Tapia and model girlfriend Krystle Mollie reveal unique diet