Add the weight cut in and it can be brutal.Īt lightweight, I wouldn’t eat any carbs at all for the last two weeks before weigh-in. This is your livelihood now and you have to win. As soon as I got in the UFC, it becomes a job where you’re getting paid a lot more money.

When I was younger and didn’t have to seriously cut weight, I’d eat whatever I wanted ahead of fights. He was my favourite fighter, so I wanted to be a welterweight. My whole mindset then was just that I loved Georges St-Pierre. I’d walk into weigh-in in my tracksuit pants and a hoodie, I’d put phones in my pockets and drink a bunch of water before getting on the scales to seem heavier. I fought at welterweight (77kg) when I was younger, even though I was a skinny teenager walking around at 73-74kg. But I put my body through hell for years to get here. After moving up from lightweight to welterweight, I’m on a three-fight win streak after tapping out Shinsho Anzai last month in Singapore, first round.

His body fully recovers after his weight cut, he goes into that cage and smashes people. He’s fresh when he goes into the Octagon, 100 per cent. He moved up to middleweight, where he’s not the biggest guy by any means – but he’s the undisputed champion of the world. Rob was a welterweight and during weight cuts, he looked horrible. Rob had seen me during that weight cut and just said, ‘Nah … no good’. What are you doing? Move up a weight class, you can’t keep doing this to yourself.’ĭad and I said, ‘Yeah, we think you’re right’. He grabs me, starts shaking me and says: ‘Go up to welterweight. We were down having breakfast in the hotel and Rob Whittaker walks in. It was two years after I’d had a seizure in an elevator in Sydney, dragged unconscious across a hotel lobby in the final hours of a weight cut before facing a jiu-jitsu world champion in the UFC.Īnd it was the morning after I’d lost in Melbourne to a guy I should have easily beaten.

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