From the storm of despair to unwavering glory
The Black Sword
The Incredible True Story of One Man's Fight Against Obesity and Addiction to Becoming a Champion
Addict to athlete
From addict to athlete at 40
Phil Albenze started training at about 40, at 304 pounds, after twenty years of drinking. Within a year he had lost about 140 pounds. By 2015 he was a champion natural bodybuilder at 4.5% body fat. In his fifties he stepped into the boxing ring. Two books tell how.
Why the gym worked when nothing else had
Phil had tried before. He'd eat a chicken salad and cut 15 to 25 beers a night down to three to five, join a gym, spend an hour there doing 15 minutes of work because he didn't want to look stupid on a machine, and eventually quit. "You try and then you fail and that was my pattern for forever," he says.
The difference in 2009 was a trainer. "Even Rocky had a trainer," Phil points out. The man he hired was a natural bodybuilder who looked at a 304-pound alcoholic and said, "I got you. Let's start tomorrow." The first workout was so hard that 15 minutes in, Phil learned it had only been the warm-up.
He replaced one habit with another, on purpose. "I wasn't going to die in a gym. I was going to die if I didn't do things that were keeping me from fitness and from a gym."
Why natural
When his trainer suggested a bodybuilding show, Phil chose to compete natural, without anabolic drugs, and his reason comes straight from his addiction. "I could eat or drink 20, 30 beers and never feel satisfied. I didn't really have an off switch." He knew that same habit would follow him into steroids, and could kill him as fast as the drinking.
He placed fourth at his first show, the USA All Natural in New York. In 2015 he won the open class at the NGA Northeast Ohio All Natural and its championship trophy, the Black Sword. He competed 20 times and won four championships, and at the Reign of Fire in Akron took first in Masters Over 50, first in Transformation and the Overall Poser award.
Then the ring
"Boxing was always something that I always wanted to do," Phil says, but he was too out of shape to consider it until bodybuilding changed that. After retiring from the stage he took up Masters boxing in Youngstown. He won the Masters main event at a Girard card in November 2021, and in August 2026 Jack Loew matched him with former Harlem Globetrotter Wayne "Rare Air" Clark. After the Sword covers those years, including a rib-breaking injury he hid from everyone.
The books
The next chapter of The Black Sword
After the Sword
A Story of Redemption, Resilience, and What Comes Next
Phil on the switch from bottle to barbell
Questions
How old was Phil when he started training?
About 40. He was 304 pounds when he hired his first trainer in 2009.
How much weight did he lose?
About 140 pounds in the first year. TRAIN magazine later listed him at 171 pounds and 4.5% body fat.
Did he use steroids?
No. He competed as a natural bodybuilder, without anabolic drugs, partly because of his addictive history.
Which book covers the boxing?
After the Sword. The Black Sword covers the addiction years and the bodybuilding stage.