Ilia Topuria, the now former UFC featherweight champion, recently appeared on the JRE MMA Show #166 with Joe Rogan where he made a compelling case against the practice of weight cutting in the UFC, describing it as “sanctioned cheating” that compromises star’s health and performance.
Topuria, who has recently announced his move up to the lightweight division, revealed that he walked around at 180 pounds while competing as a 145-pound featherweight champion, meaning he cut approximately 35 pounds for his fights.
“That was the hardest part of my training of the fight game for me,” Topuria explained to Rogan. “I wasn’t enjoying at all the last couple of fights that I had because it’s like I had to become more professional on the way cut than in a fight game, you know, and it was taking a lot of time and energy from me.”
The champion described the grueling process of weight cutting, explaining that he would begin cutting weight 12 weeks before a fight, limiting himself to around 1,800 calories daily while burning approximately 4,000 calories through training. In the final days before weigh-ins, he would undergo extreme dehydration protocols, even resorting to drinking wine to accelerate water loss.
“I wasn’t able to sleep in 48 hours at all because I was so dehydrated,” Topuria recalled. “My body was so like skinny and I was dreaming with water, with food, with everything.”
Rogan, a longtime critic of weight cutting in combat sports, agreed with Topuria, calling it “sanctioned cheating” and proposing that the UFC should eliminate the practice entirely. “I really wish the UFC would eliminate weight cutting. I really wish there was a way,” Rogan said.
Topuria offered his own solution to the problem, suggesting that fighters should be regularly weighed throughout their training camps during dr*g testing visits. “If I go to your home to make the dr*g test, I put you in the scale. If you walk around like 8% or 10% over your weight, I would obligate you to go in the next weight class,” he proposed.
Both Rogan and Topuria also discussed the potential health risks associated with weight cutting. Fighters compete in a physically compromised state, with Rogan noting that “when you’re cutting that much water out of your body, you’re essentially getting to death’s door…24 hours before you fight.”
Since moving up to the lightweight division, Topuria says he feels significantly better physically. “You are going to see me at 155 that I’m going to touch someone and I’m going to take his lights out. Even if I don’t need to touch his chin, I just touch his head and it will explode. I feel so powerful at that weight class.”
The champion believes the move will allow him to showcase his true potential without the draining effects of extreme weight cutting. “I can’t wait to see it,” responded Rogan, who has long advocated for more rational weight classes and the elimination of severe dehydration protocols in combat sports.
