Cutting weight is a huge part of mixed martial arts, no matter how risky it may be. Athletes push their bodies to the limit in order to get one up on their opponent.
Stories of athletes losing obscene amounts of weight to the point where their bodies give out on them are known. Notably Khabib Nurmagomedov was on the edge of his kidney’s shutting down – as was Paddy Pimblett prior to his UFC days. Pimblett was dangerously close to critical condition and even ended up puking blood after a bout – in the cage.
Israel Adesanya is no exception especially considering he’s scheduled to face the only man to have defeated him twice in kickboxing.
In lead up to event Adesanya reminisced about the time he used an unusual and drastic measure in an effort to cut those last few pounds.
UFC middleweight champion was questioned about the most extreme thing he’s ever done to lose weight while speaking with Taylor Rooks of Bleacher Report. You can see in the video that Izzy immediately knew the response he would give. However, he hesitated to utter it. He paused, trying to think of the kindest way to express it.
But after some prodding from the presenter, he agreed to divulge his weight-loss method.
He added, blushing and burying his head beneath his jumper,
“Back in kickboxing, when I was an amateur, I did not have a fight dietitian and I was not in the UFC. Ahhh, f**k man. OK, how do I put this? I busted a nut to make weight.”
Then, Adesanya and Rooks started giggling.
“How much does that weigh?” Rooks enquired next.
Izzy said in jest, “You really want to know? A few grams came off. I made weight.”
Rooks herself blogged about it on Twitter, perhaps still traumatised by the incident.
She tweeted:
“One thing about this job… you never know what you’re going to hear lmao. Asked Israel Adesanya the craziest thing he had to do to cut weight. We weren’t… expecting the response.”
In regards to Adesanya’s forthcoming matchup with longtime rival Alex Pereira at UFC 281, Adensanya being the betting favourite startled him.
At the press conference before the bout, Adesanya said,
“I like (the pressure) on me. I like it on me in this one. I saw last night, I’m like, ‘Why am I the favorite in this on the betting odds?’”
“I never check them but I just happened to see something on Instagram and I was like, ‘How the f*ck am I the favorite?’ I feel like we should change that. How do we change that or something, fake an injury? I don’t know. We’ll see. I think we should bet on him this fight. Yeah, we’ll just see what happens.”