Hungarian Boxer Drinking Snake's Blood to Prepare for His Fight This Weekend

This Saturday night at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, England, Indian Olympic boxer-turned-fashion-model-turned-Bollywood-star Vijender Singh will put his modest 3-0 professional record on the line against little-known Hungarian middleweight Alexander Horvath. In addition to running and shadow-boxing, the 20-year-old Horvath says has started drinking fresh snake's blood to prepare for the fight, believing it will make him stronger, even unbeatable.

"The blood of these sacred animals makes me powerful beyond words," Horvath said recently. "With snake blood coursing through my veins there in no way that Singh will defeat me. Since I've added snake blood to my diet I have been able to train harder than ever before without tiring and I'm punching harder than ever."

As part of a jungle-survival exercise held at a military base in Chanthaburi Province in Thailand in 2014, U.S. marines were taught to killed venomous cobras by their instructors and then encouraged to drink the animals' blood, which is sold as an aphrodisiac throughout southeast Asia.

Many Vietnamese men believe drinking the blood of snakes increases both good fortune and sexual prowess. In China, snakes are considered medicinal, a "warming food" in traditional lore, and snake blood is often mixed with liquor to enhance virility. Snake wine is also thought to cure a number of physical ailments, from farsightedness to hair loss.

After the harvest season is over in the southern Omo River Valley in Ethiopia, the men of the Surma tribe gather for the ancient donga ritual—an elaborate courting process disguised as drunken stick fights. The winner of each fight is allowed to choose a woman he finds attractive, and if that woman responds by putting one of her ornate necklaces around the fighter's stick they become a couple. The warriors wear no clothing or armor when they fight, to prove their toughness and masculinity, and every once in a while one of them is killed.

Before they fight, however, the men must first complete a different ritual: the "blood meal," which consists of drinking two liters of fresh cow's blood poured into a gourd from the cow's artery. According to photographer Eric Lafforgue, who witnessed the donga ritual, "The warrior has got to drink the lot in one go as the blood coagulates quickly. Sometimes, warriors don't manage to drink all of the blood in one mouthful and end up vomiting everywhere."

"There is a long and proud tradition of drinking fresh snake blood in my family that goes back many centuries. Like my forefathers before me I am a true warrior and will stop at nothing to get my victory. Hungarian soldiers drank snake blood to defeat the Turks all those years ago and now I'm drinking it to beat Singh." — Alexander Horvath

According to Scandinavian folklore, when the hero Hjalti drank the blood of a wolf he immediately gained courage "enough for fighting with one man." Soon, though, "his courage increased, his strength waxed, he became very strong, mighty as a troll, [and] all his clothes burst open."

Choosing to keep with the culinary theme of Alexander Horvath's taunting, Vijender Singh told reporters, " I don't care at all being about my opponents, as desi ghee is part of my diet from the beginning of my career."

Ghee is the ancient clarified butter believed by Indians to be of enormous nutritional, medicinal, even religious value. The butter is a required part of 5000-year-old Hindu fire rituals designed to bring good fortune and success. It's also rich in medium-chain fatty acids, which can be burned as efficient and consistent sources of energy for athletes.

In addition to ghee, police in India's Punjab State claim that between December 2012 and February 2013 Vijender Singh also ingested quite a bit of heroin. As part of their investigation into a smuggling ring in the state, the police determined that the boxer had taken the drug "about 12 times" during that period. Singh denied the allegations and refused to give samples of his hair and blood for forensic testing.

In May 2013, the boxer was given an "all-clean" certificate by the National Anti-Doping Agency.

Of all the snakes whose blood Alexander Horvath could choose to drink he says has developed a particular taste for the viper. There are two vipers indigenous to Hungary: the Long-Nosed Adder (aka the Nose-Horned Viper), which rarely strikes and whose venom is rarely fatal to human; and the Orsini's Viper, or Meadow Viper, which will readily strike when approached, has a potent and potentially deadly haemotoxic venom, and is "known to have an irritable disposition." Here's hoping Horvath has chosen the latter.

Bob Fitzsimmons, the great 19th-century boxer and the first-ever three-division champion, would prepare for his fights by taking cold sponge baths and eating "hearty dinners" that consisted of "every vegetable the markets far and near can produce. These are flanked by generous roasts of beef, mutton and pork."

Longtime world heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey would constantly chew on a thick, sticky gum made out of pine tar before fights in hopes of building up his chin and jaw.

In 2009, in the run-up to his UFC championship fight against Rashad Evans, Brazilian mixed martial artist Lyoto Machida admitted he drank his own urine "like a natural medicine." "My father does that for a long time and bring it to us," Machida said. "People think it's a joke. I never said it in the United States because I don't know how the fans will react."