If you’ve been following the blog here at ShaqFu Radio for any time at all, you know that our man Shaq has been on a bit of a fitness kick lately. We’re reported on his weight-loss and muscle-gaining work for a while. For a big (really big!) man over 50 years old, he’s doing a great job.
On a recent podcast, Shaq talked about comparisons between himself and world-famous soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo when it comes to percentage of body fat. Have you seen Ronaldo? Totally ripped, with a lifestyle and workout routine not unlike football GOAT Tom Brady…and an estimated body fat percentage around 7 percent.
At the time of this post, Ronaldo is 37 years old. Yet day in and day out, he’s putting 20-year-old soccer players to shame as he plays for the top-ranked Manchester United FC (that’s Football Club for those not familiar with soccer names…).
On his most recent podcast episode for The Big Podcast with Shaq, the former Lakers superstar talked about his ongoing get-in-shape program. When someone brought up Ronaldo, O’Neal claimed to have a lesser fat percentage than 7% back in 1995 playing days. If that was true, it would make him a more “fit” specimen than Cristiano Ronaldo.
In ‘95, Shaq was not that long past his college playing days at LSU. That was the year he helped lead the Orlando Magic to the NBA Finals (only to be defeated by the Houston Rockets. Those were the days of tearing-down-the-rim mega-dunks and other unbelievable performances. Needless to say, he was in pretty good shape!
Towering at 7’1 and around 305 pounds during his early career days, the 15x All-Star once reportedly even had a body fat percentage of around 7.5%, at least accordingn to a conversation with bodybuilder / actor / former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. BTW, Arnold also says he remembers Shaq telling him he usually ate 10 meals a day!
So even at 7.5% body fat, that would rank Shaq in elite status among today’s 20-something soccer players and other top-shelf athletes. On the podcast, Shaq said he believed he was even more fit back in that ‘95 season.
So… True info, or just Shaq talking off the cuff and maybe, just maybe, putting a little spin on the facts for his podcast audience? Unless some team and / or medical records are found from his early years in the NBA, we may never know.
For a man his size, 7.5% body fat would be a crazy-low number. Impossible? Certainly not… Just highly unusual. If a guy like Giannis Antetokounmpo had claimed numbers like this, we’d probably have no trouble believing. Still, O’Neal is continuing to work on his physical conditioning. It’ll be interesting to see where the journey takes him.