Errol Spence Jr. is the reigning IBF welterweight titleholder, undefeated in 24 fights and with 21 knockouts to his name—a record that makes him the heavy favorite for his March 16 bout, even against the also-undefeated Mikey Garcia at AT&T Stadium in Dallas. But even in the lead-up to the biggest matchup of his career in front of a hometown crowd, he wants to talk about another skill in his repertoire: cooking. Spence Jr. is an eager learner in the kitchen, a habit he picked up from watching his parents and now develops by perusing the Cooking Channel and various Instagram accounts.

Of course, there’s only so much a professional boxer can eat before a fight, when the name of the game is hitting a specific weight. That doesn’t stop him from doing a little experimenting with basic dishes, though, or from carefully considering different restaurants to post up at once he can pack on the pounds again. We asked Spence Jr. to talk through some of his favorite meals—some more unorthodox than others—as well as just how strict his diet gets before a fight. We failed, however, to get him to reconsider his slanderous In-N-Out takes.

GQ: I was reading a 2016 Reddit AMA in which you said your walking-around weight is 168 pounds. How long does it take you to get to 147 pounds?

Errol Spence Jr.: Usually 9 or 10 weeks. I’m cutting out meals and changing my diet. My diet is bad when I’m not training.

In the lead-up to the fight, when you’re in the thick of training, is there typically a specific week or day when you hit a mental wall? Like, This sucks?

It varies—it’s kind of hard on the weekends not to eat any junk food. I’m eating healthy all throughout the week, and usually on Friday and Saturday I want to have a burger or go out to eat. I can’t really do that, though. I love barbecue, so I try to change it up a little bit and barbecue some chicken or a turkey burger, just to get that different type of flavor.

What’s your weekly workout routine?

On Monday mornings, I run sprints, and then go to the gym and work out. Later in the day, I do a five- or six-mile jog. Wednesdays or Thursdays, depending on how my body feels, I go through strength and conditioning. I do that in the morning instead of running sprints, and then I go to the gym and get a light jog in.

How careful do you have to be with weight training when you’re prepping for a fight?

For the most part, I push forward with my normal routine. But I have to listen to my body, too. Early in my career, I was training seven days a week with no rest. I was burning myself out. Now, if it’s squat day or a day where I do strength and conditioning, and I wake up not feeling it, I’m not going to do it. I’ll move it to another day. I’m taking more precautions.

What’s one thing about training for a fight that most outsiders don’t think about?

A lot of guys who box have a hard time maintaining their strength and endurance as their weight drops—especially when they get down to the last three or four pounds. Like, 147 is not my walking-around weight. It’s more like 170. It gets hard to maintain that type of endurance and still have the same speed, power, and quickness you would have at 170. It takes a lot of discipline and top-level conditioning. I think there’s a science to it that a lot of people take for granted. The closer to the fight, the smaller your portions of food get.