The Real-Life Diet of Creed II Star Florian Munteanu, Who Trains His Abs Four Times a Day

It's no small task to cast the role of Viktor Drago, the son of one of history's most iconic movie villains: Rocky IV's Ivan Drago, of "If he dies, he dies" and "I must break you" fame. But the team behind Creed II found their man in Florian Munteanu, a Romanian boxer and fitness model who at 6-foot-4 and close to 250 pounds has earned every letter in his "Big Nasty" nickname. Here, behold a person whose right hook you have no interest in absorbing with any part of your body, much less your face:

With Creed II finally hitting theaters this week, we spoke with the 28-year-old about making weight, training with Michael B. Jordan, and the real secret to his success: his morning routine of downing the strangest bowl of cereal you can imagine. Hey, it's clearly working.

GQ: First things first, explain how you scored a lifetime supply of Domino's in Romania.

Florian Munteanu: The story with the lifetime supply is very easy. Romania is a very supportive country, so once I got the role and I was done shooting, my country went crazy. This was only one of the crazy things that happened. Usually I'm the guy who goes to Pizza Hut. So they [the manager of Domino's Pizza Romania] called my manager and said, "Hey, your guy, he's eating at Pizza Hut all the time." My manager said, "if you want him to come to Domino's, you know, do something about it." So when they told me Domino's wanted to give me a lifetime supply, I was like, Hell yeah, let's do it. If I'm in Romania, Domino's Pizza is my best friend, and it will stay that way forever.

Have you always been really into pizza? Did you eat a lot of pizza while shooting Creed II?

Obviously when we started to shoot, I had to hold myself back from pizza and put myself on a strict diet. The goal was to lose weight. And for Mike, the goal was to gain weight. It's a heavyweight bout, so I was trying to lose, like, 20 pounds to drop to 220, and he was working to gain about 25 pounds to come up to 195. Until we got all the montage stuff out of the way, I had to hold myself back. But then I was back on cheesesteaks and pizza.

Did you ever look over at MBJ eating whatever he wanted and get a little jealous?

It was also hard for him because gaining that much weight in such a short amount of time is also not that easy. At some point, you can't really eat any more, but you still have to. But I was hungry most of the time, and seeing him kind of struggling to finish his food definitely made me jealous .

What was your typical diet while training for the film?

It was pretty monotone. I'm not the guy who loves cooking that much. I try to keep it as simple as possible: chicken, rice, and vegetables, all day, all night. I mix it up with some tomatoes and avocados. Maybe some hummus, if I had a good day and I thought I was losing a lot of body fat. Breakfast was cornflakes. I tried to have at least something—it's not really a cheat meal—but you eat some sugar in the morning and it gives you a lot of energy. I like milk. I like drinking milk.

You were eating cornflakes for breakfast while trying to lose 20 pounds?

The thing with me is that my genetics are pretty awesome. We were training a lot—like five hours a day. If I keep training, I'm burning a lot. If I eat it in the morning right before we start training and then I keep it clean during the day and at night, it doesn't hurt me at all.

Your character has a couple of funny callbacks to Ivan Drago refusing water from his trainers in Rocky IV. Talk to me about the importance of hydration while working out.

I'm drinking a lot. I start in the morning with the milk in my cereal. Usually about half a liter. I don't know if you're familiar with liter and milliliter—it's a different scale.

Half a liter of milk in your cereal? Just how big is this bowl of cereal?

Yes, yes, of milk. Yep. Trust me, it's a bowl, man. For real, man, like, serious cereal.

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There's been a lot made of your airport abs, so I have to ask, how do you kick it up a notch from six abs to eight abs?

If I'm on my workout routine, I'm training my abs four times a day. The routine that I have is 40 or 45 minutes before I start my regular workout. I focus on the obliques in the lower abs to get the eight-pack in—a lot of hanging leg raises or knee raises. And the workout where you have your legs tied up in front of you and someone's throwing a medicine ball over your head and you're throwing it back.

Do you hit the protein shakes pretty hard?

If you want to gain muscle, you've got to increase your protein level. I would say I drink four or five shakes a day.

Is the first one of the day something you have along with breakfast or after your first workout?

The first two scoops of protein powder go right into my cereal [laughing].

That seems like a crucial detail to leave out about your "bowl of cornflakes." I think you need to Instagram your cereal.

[Laughing] Crucial. That's how I start my day. Yes, I need a lifetime supply. And a lifetime supply of Shake Shack.

Is that a favorite? What's the order at Shake Shack?

Shake Shack burger, bacon and cheese fries, and then this huge salted caramel shake with whipped cream on top of it. [laughs] When we were shooting the movie, after all the boxing and montages were out of the way, I think I was ordering $400 or $500 worth of Shake Shack every week.

I heard that you actually snuck out of the house to see Rocky IV in theaters when you were a kid. Do you remember when you first started hitting a heavy bag?

When I was six or seven years old. My father used to box and train boxers, so I used to watch him while he was fighting and training. It was only a matter of time. I think my first amateur fight was when I was 12.

Who were the fitness or boxing role models you looked up to while growing up in Germany?

Roy Jones Jr. My father and I used to get up early in the morning to watch his fights. He was also doing his own entry songs. The song "Can't Be Touched" was a song that followed me my whole life. I used it for motivation and inspiration.

What was it about Roy Jones' style that you always admired?

His movements were crazy. I never saw a boxer or athlete that moved like him, ever. I don't really think you can learn it—it's just a natural talent that you're gifted with. He was doing crazy things back then back in his prime.

What do you listen to when you workout now?

Drake, obviously. Travis Scott. Migos. Kanye—the old Kanye. Stuff like that. And German rap, especially Xatar and Eno.

What's Thanksgiving dinner going to look like?

Enjoying the time with my family. And a lot of Shake Shack.

This interview has been edited and condensed.