Author: By Frank Curreri

ATLANTA, April 22 – One of the UFC’s most bitter feuds saw Jon Jones pushed five rounds for the first time in his career Saturday night at Philips Arena, but friend-turned-enemy Rashad Evans was unable to overcome the 205-pound champ’s massive reach advantage, wicked elbows and relentless plethora of kicks in the UFC 145 main event.

Jones, widely anointed as the skyrocketing sport’s Superman of sorts, did not steamroll his former sparring partner as many had expected. Rounds one and two were at times riveting and very competitive, but Jones was noticeably busier over the final three rounds to cinch the unanimous decision by scores of 49-46, 49-46, and 50-45.

“Yeah, this was definitely my most satisfying victory,” the 24-year-old champ said. “I felt like my striking was a little more elementary (than usual), I just didn’t want to make a lot of mistakes.”

Yet Jones (16-1) noted that the bout played out much different than their training sessions, before Evans departed Greg Jackson’s team over a year ago amid turmoil over teammates fighting teammates.

“It felt completely different,” Jones said. “You saw tonight I threw a lot of elbows. I would never do that to a sparring partner … and I think my wrestling has definitely improved a lot. I had a goal to finish this fight and I didn’t. Hats off to Rashad. That’s the first time I’ve gone five rounds so I learned some things there, too.”

After the final horn had sounded neither champ nor challenger shook hands or exchanged verbal pleasantries that would indicate the simmering tensions are squashed. But there was respect in the comments they gave to commentator Joe Rogan.

“I give him props; he was creative and kept me on my toes, so I got to give it to him,” said 32-year-old Evans, the former UFC light heavyweight champ who fell to 22-2-1. “He had those sneaky elbows that kept getting in on me.”

It is 3:30 p.m. on a sunny afternoon in Las Vegas and Forrest Griffin has discreetly settled into a popular sushi restaurant. Tipping the scales at 226 pounds, he gulps down 20 or so pieces of sushi – salmon, yellowtail salmon, eel and tuna. He adds a large salad for good measure and washes it down with his favorite beverage of all-time: a 16-ounce coffee. “This will be my biggest meal of the day,” he says, though he hints he may have overdone it given that within an hour he will begin lacing up for another evening MMA sparring session. A politically astute man of many opinions and diverse interests far beyond MMA (he’s written two New York Times bestselling books, after all), the former UFC champ was kind enough to let me tag along and quiz him on the diet behind one of the sport’s most well-conditioned cardio machines.

Curreri: You said you were 226 this morning. It’s interesting because you’re a big light heavyweight and could fight some at heavyweight if you chose to.

Griffin: Yeah, I had six or seven fights at heavyweight. Light heavyweight is a deeper weight class but there are two problems: One, I don’t have the pop, the power. Two, I no longer have a heavyweight chin. You know, I get the best of Roy Nelson 70 percent of the time. But that other 30 percent of the time – same with Frank Mir – with these little gloves, I just can’t take their shots. The other thing is, when Roy gets on top of you the world feels like it’s ending. So heavyweights are not fun.

Curreri: How long have you been conscientious about your diet? Did it start with being a pro fighter?

Griffin: No. I was one of those guys, I remember growing up in high school and I would eat a can of tuna every day after fourth period. And then in college I tried to play football (at the University of Georgia). I would keep a notebook and try to eat 6,000 CLEAN calories a day. Do you know how hard that is to eat 6,000 CLEAN calories a day? It’s hard. I was working out 2 to 3 hours a day, lifting, running, sprinting. At that time I had such a high metabolism. I was reading all the bodybuilding magazines and stuff. I was on the practice squad and stuff but I just realized that no matter how hard I tried I just wasn’t as talented as those guys.

Curreri: You played defensive end in high school. How big were you?

Griffin: When I graduated high school I was 223 with 5 percent body fat. I ran a 4.6 40 (yard dash) and I could dunk the s— out of a basketball.

Curreri: Can you still dunk a basketball?

Griffin: It’s sad. It took me three tries last time but I did it. One-handed.

I remember eating cake (years ago) and I remember thinking, ‘When was the last time I had anything with this much sugar in it?’ And it had been over two years. So I was eating super-clean even in my early 20s.

Curreri: You’ve got so many different diets out there today: Vegan, Paleo, High protein/low carb, etc..Does your diet relate closely to any popular diet in particular?

Griffin: I kind of make up my own diet. I was talking about that the other day … the less steps between you and your food the better. I still eat processed foods, but I try not to. So I eat organic most of the time. I notice, too, that the more sugar I eat the more often I get sick. And that just stands to reason: you’re making your body more acidic. I’m a big believer in the Paleo diet, I just don’t have the discipline for it.

My wife and I buy expensive meat and expensive veggies. And I’m telling you, I bought some organic kale and the last little bit of it went bad. I was pissed. ‘Man, it was six bucks for that kale! We’re just throwing money away!’ I drink green drinks, throw some spinach in there. I don’t TRY to eat healthy, I ENJOY eating healthy. But I also want to eat unhealthy, too, you know?

I usually supplement with a lot of protein shakes. So I eat 5 to 7 times a day. I eat a lot of food. But I’m lucky because I really enjoy working out. I always have. I don’t care what it is but I’ve got to do something for a couple of hours.

Curreri: If we were to peer into the Griffin home refrigerator right now, what would be in there?

Griffin: There’s coconut milk, vegetables, tons of spinach, Greek yogurt unsweetened that my wife makes dip with. Tons of good stuff. Avocado, homemade guacamole. I actually eat out more than I’d like to. The old standby for me is Jason’s Deli. I’ll get a salad or a wrap. I won’t eat cheese or anything fried. I don’t touch fast food. The pink slime and that kind of stuff, we have no concern because we’re never eating that stuff. I don’t drink fruit juices or do juicing, either. If sugar is bad, then why is lots of sugar in juice good? If I’m going to eat something bad, (screw) it, I’ll eat Ben & Jerry’s or cake. No processed cookie crap.

High acidity causes more wear and tear on your body, and perhaps, this is what Randy (Couture) used to say, more lactic acid in your muscles. Refined sugar is poison. We all know that. Anything that tastes really good is really bad for you.

The older you are as a fighter, the more diet plays a part because you need all the help you can get. But you can’t eat foods, alcohol or stuff that breaks you down further. You are what you eat. And unfortunately, you are what your food eats.

I remember when my mom used to buy liver. You can’t buy liver anymore! It’s so shot out because of all the hormones, steroids and antibiotics that destroy an animal’s liver. So you wouldn’t want to eat that. I’m super fortunate because my wife’s family are big hunters. So I’ve got a freezer full of boar, venison, a freezer full of good game. But it’s fresh meat. A deer will not willfully sit in another deer’s s—. Cows don’t have a choice.

Curreri: Do you cook?

Griffin: It’s funny you ask. I actually cook the same thing every day. I cook two or three pounds of ground lean organic turkey or chicken, then I put broccoli or spinach slaw and that’s dinner every night. I might put some olive oil, balsamic vinaigrette. I also might put some barbeque sauce or hot sauce. I eat a lot of hot sauce and it’s great because it doesn’t have a lot of calories. But never use hot sauce before a workout. I get the worst indigestion if I do that. I’ll be on fire.

We pretty much buy everything organic from Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s. The diet that I eat, over time you might notice that you get sick less and feel less tired. But it’s not an overnight thing.

Curreri: Tell me about your diet growing up.

Griffin: My mom was a hippie and looking back that was cool because we
always ate healthy. It was just me and my mom and we didn’t have a lot
of money. We ate a lot of stews and ghouloshes, stuff that at the time I
hated. But looking back they were actually pretty healthy. I remember
on weekends we would eat Breyers ice cream. My mom was really into not
taking Aspartame, not taking BPA, things like that.

Curreri: I would be remiss if we didn’t talk about your extraordinary coffee consumption, up to 14 cups of coffee a day. A certified coffee addict. Is caffeine ever an issue for a pro fighter?

Griffin: Caffeine obviously beats your system up, it causes you to get sick more, and it causes you to break down more. Anything that gets you going will be by nature catabolic and cause you to break down more at some point. That being said, I just love coffee. I’m never going to NOT take in caffeine. I just don’t take any caffeine after 4 p.m. and I don’t usually have any trouble sleeping. I just started drinking coffee my freshman year in college. There are a lot of papers that wouldn’t have gotten written if not for coffee.

Curreri: Forrest Griffin the fighter minus coffee. What would that be like?

Griffin: I would be awesome. I would be so much healthier. I just would never make it to the gym!

Of all the fighters I have ever been around, one towers above all others when it comes to indiscriminate eating habits: Miguel Angel Torres. If there is a so-called ‘Bottomless pit’ in MMA, it would be the former bantamweight world champ, who for more than a decade acted like fast food, fried Asian dishes, burritos, tacos and soda pop were the diet of champions.

Friends and acquaintances seemed perplexed at how the East Chicago, Indiana, pioneer demonstrated dietary anarchy yet still A) won and defended a world title B) always wowed you with his extraordinary cardio and C) racked up consecutive win streaks of 20 and 17, respectively. Indeed, Torres rose to the top eating Wendy’s and McDonald’s right after hard training sessions. By hitting up the Asian joint down the street where they only serve unrefined brown rice and offer menus stacked with fatty fare. By cooking up flautas drenched with cheese in his spare time.

And the mulleted maverick never second-guessed his diet. There wasn’t the slightest bit of shame in his make-it-up-as-you-go-along grubbing game. In fact, it almost seemed a badge of honor. Other fighters dieted and deprived themselves of tasty foods; Torres could eat whatever he wanted and still be king. His mind power and obsessive will to win were so strong, it just didn’t matter.

Suffering back-to-back losses for the only time in his career – back in late 2009 and early 2010 – prompted Torres to switch up his training camp and coaches, but his dietary indulgences remained the same. He even went on to win three of his next four UFC fights (don’t tell him that; Torres believes he is 4-0 in that span, and has plenty of supporters who believe he merited the nod over Demetrious Johnson last May).

So it was with great anticipation that I called Torres recently, asking him to explain his unique eating habits to UFC.com readers. It would be a fun variation from the norm, I thought. To my surprise, Torres informed me that he has employed a dietary overhaul of sorts. Gone is his eat-whatever-I-want swag. In its place is a newfound consciousness when it comes to the food that fuels his training for a UFC 145 showdown with Michael McDonald, whom some believe possesses all the skills to someday win a world title.

So here is Miguel Torres, now aged 31 and owning a 39-4 record, discussing his 2.0 diet and why now is the right time for change.

Curreri: Give readers an idea of a typical day of eating for you.
Torres: I wake up, go to the gym. I might have a cup of coffee. I get to the gym and train. Right after that I’ll have a protein shake with half juice (orange or apple) and half water.
Then I might take a nap, chill a little bit, then have a big lunch: Chicken breast, brown rice, I might have a salad with spinach, carrots, tomatoes, some vinegar and oil. Then I’ll chill a little bit, go back to the gym and do the same thing. I got rid of McDonald’s, soda pop and stuff like that.

Curreri: How long have you been on this new diet?
Torres: Actually, maybe the last six weeks. I haven’t had any Mexican food during this training camp and I miss it so much, I’m not going to lie.

Curreri: You have been such a voracious eater your entire career. What sparked this sudden change?
Torres: You know, I’m getting older; I’m 31 now and it’s getting harder to make the weight (135 pounds). I also want to make sure that I have my best performances, and I’m around a bunch of guys that only eat healthy food, and whenever we’d go out to eat they would order such healthy food and I was eating whatever I wanted. I started feeling kind of weird doing that so I switched over to the brown rice, chicken breast, salads and eating healthy. It hasn’t been that hard. I’m a mentally strong and focused person and I can make myself do whatever I want to.

Curreri: So who is overseeing your diet or advising you on these matters?  
Torres: Actually my teammate Chuck O’Neil has helped me a lot with my diet. He was on The Ultimate Fighter and he trains here in Montreal (at Tri-Star) with me, Rick Hawn and Steve Simms. Rick Hawn, in particular, is ridiculous with his diet. So I decided to eat healthier. I’m doing pretty good right now and the one place where I could make a change for the better was my diet. I’ve always had great cardio but now I train extremely hard and the next day I’m not sore at all. I feel great and I haven’t had any injuries at all.

Curreri: Do you prepare a lot of your own meals?
Torres: Either I’ll prepare it or one of my guys will prepare it for me. It’s not so hard. Instead of eating chips or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich I’ll have an apple or an orange or a small salad. I used to eat whatever I wanted. McDonald’s, Wendy’s, whatever. I was drinking sodas.

Curreri: Tell us about growing up in the Torres home. Were either of your parents good cooks?
Torres: Yeah my mom is a great cook so every day was a feast. Every day she made a nice Mexican meal, tortillas, rice and beans with every meal, no matter what it was. A lot of chicken, homemade salsa. My favorite dish she makes is a soup called cabo de res. It’s a beef stew with potatoes, cabbage, celery, carrots, zucchini, onions, tomatoes, cilantro … pretty much anything you can think of. You put that into a bowl and it is spectacular.

Curreri: Are you a good cook as well?
Torres: Yeah I can cook tacos, soup, burritos, flautas.  

Curreri: You got up to 163 pounds before this training camp. That’s the heaviest you have ever been.
Torres: Yeah, I took three months off and it was stressful after being cut by the UFC. I went through a lot and all I did was eat and drink.

Curreri: We are 10 days or so away from you fight with Michael McDonald in Atlanta. Where is your weight now?
Torres: I’m about 150. It’s just a lot of water. I feel very strong. Michael McDonald is a very good fighter but I know I’m going to get my hand raised. I’m going to win by knockout.

Curreri: You are new to being a more disciplined eater. Where do you believe your diet is headed for the rest of your career? Do you intend to go stricter?
Torres: It’s like everything else — I expect it to evolve. This is the first time I’ve tried it out and I feel great. Being around the guys I’m training with now, I expect to go even further with my diet in the future.

Curreri: In the days after your fight with Michael McDonald, any plans to treat yourself to some Mexican food?
Torres: After this fight I’m going to my mom’s and I’m going to have soup (Caldo de res)!

 

“Trainers Hate Him.”

Chances are you’ve been a captive audience to that cheesy online headline before. Whether the musclebound freaks / cartoonishly ripped dudes featured in those ‘Get Buff’ ads are factual or fictitious, I have no idea. What I do know is that Papy Abedi could easily stump as poster boy for those outrageous promos.

The Zaire-born, Sweden-built fighter rivals Georges St-Pierre for most beastly physique in the 170-pound division. Yet, in Abedi’s case, the 33-year-old is super buff and super-shredded despite rarely lifting weights. The judo black belt tells of the time he accompanied a friend to a bodybuilding competition. On a whim, the friend entered Abedi’s name into the competition.

“Without any training at all he earned a silver medal in the fitness competition,” said MMA trainer Andreas Michael said of his soft-spoken protégé.

You could also say that Abedi settled for a silver medal in his UFC debut as well. He stepped into the Octagon a sterling 8-0 against Thiago Alves. The ensuing clash of wills saw the Brazilian overwhelm Abedi en route to a first round submission win.

I asked Abedi if he felt he had been “thrown to the wolves” too soon.

“I wanted to test myself and I always want to fight the best,” Abedi, speaking Swedish, said courtesy of Michael’s English translation. “But it was early, in my first UFC fight, to fight one of the best in the weight division. I still feel that if I had the type of training, preparation and sparring that I have now – because I changed teams for this fight … the fight would have been completely different. So it was early for me, but it was a healthy experience that will help me grow and become a better MMA fighter. I needed to work with people that know how to bring the best out of me.”

The “new team” Abedi referenced includes San Diego-based Alliance MMA, home of UFC champ Dominick Cruz, Phil Davis, and Brandon Vera, among others. Since Cruz and company are holding their camp in Vegas, to accommodate filming The Ultimate Fighter Live, Abedi spent three weeks in the desert advancing his education. It was Abedi’s first foray training in the U.S.

“It was a good experience working with such good UFC athletes and a great champion like Dominick Cruz,” he said. “I’ve learned a lot for my wrestling and cagework game. If I had trained like this for Thiago Alves the outcome would have been a lot different. So it’s been an awesome camp that my head trainer, Andreas, put together. I’ve developed a lot as an MMA fighter working with the best.”

Indeed, it is hard to miss the emerging trend at Alliance, where the number of European fighters continues to climb. Britain’s Ross Pearson, lightweight winner of season nine of The Ultimate Fighter, is a regular face at Alliance sparring sessions. UFC light heavyweight Cyrille Diabate (France) has held part of his camp there. And Sweden’s Alexander Gustafsson, one of the premier prospects at 205 pounds, has tallied several months with the deeply talented squad.

Gustafsson was the first Swede to make the trek, a decision inspired by the only loss of his pro career, to Phil Davis two years ago.

“After that loss, we sat down and talked and I told Alex, ‘We have two choices: Either we can go to Wolfslair – which had Rampage, Bisping and Cheick Kongo and all of those guys – or we could go to Alliance,” said head trainer Michael. “We decided that the best thing, mentally and physically, was for him to go to Alliance and work with the person that he lost to. We chose to work with Alliance to work on Alexander’s wrestling there. So we packed our bags and went to work with Alliance and Alex got his confidence back. Alliance is our co-team. They are one of the best teams in the world. “It’s a family growing together. Everyone is willing to learn and work hard and there are no egos in the way. So we made the same choice taking Papy there.”

Abedi, who speaks four languages and is presently studying English, confesses to being a bit of a homebody. And that sensibility shaped his experience in Las Vegas.

“I’m a family man with two kids and a wife,” he said. “I don’t really like staying up late and things like that. I’m not into night life. I prefer to stay at home with family.”

Back in Stockholm and peaking in his camp, Abedi is excited to represent his countrymen during the UFC’s first-ever show in Sweden, scheduled for April 14. His opponent will be James Head (7-2), a BJJ purple belt under highly respected instructor Rafael Lovato Jr. who also has extensive boxing experience and four knockouts to prove it.

Some fighters really dissect and hyper-analyze their opponents. Abedi, who has finished seven of his eight victories, leaves the film study to his coaches.

“There’s not a lot to say about him (Head) because everyone in the UFC is a good fighter,” Abedi said. “It’s going to be a good match. I’ve trained very hard and I hope James Head has trained hard as well because I want to put on a really good show for the fans in Sweden. The arena sold out in three hours. I’ve got the home advantage, the crowd, my family and friends behind me. It’s a friendly and familiar environment. At the same time, there’s a lot of stress and pressure because it is at home. But I’m honored and happy to be a part of this historic event. I’m honored to fight in my home country.”

Eight years ago. 2004. Mac Danzig remembers grabbing some chicken breasts from the freezer, cooking them up and chowing them down. It was a milestone moment, signifying the last time the conscientious consumer would taste any meat or fish.

The animal rights advocate had already stopped eating dairy products; he was now full-fledged vegan.

No big deal, except Danzig’s diet made him a glaring anomaly in the MMA and society in general, where carnivores are widely presumed to have a huge edge in the all-important strength department. So for years the Cleveland-born, California-based fighter shouldered plenty of criticism and battled misperceptions about his eating habits. But Danzig, winner of season six of The Ultimate Fighter and single father to a three-year-old daughter, has noticed a gradual shift in attitudes over the past few years as the fight game evolved and ever more attention is paid to the cleanest diet possible.

Weeks before his UFC 145 showdown with fellow lightweight Efrain Escudero, 32-year-old Danzig opened up about his food philosophies and recently being featured in the acclaimed “Forks Over Knives” documentary that is related to a book of the same name that climbed to No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list. Once, the fight world virtually scoffed at Danzig’s fringe diet. More and more, however, he is looking like a pioneer who was ahead of the times.

Frank Curreri: Some people might think, five or six years ago especially, that your diet is extreme or wacky. That you are a tree-hugging pacifist. So many stereotypes are attached to vegans and vegetarian athletes in “manly” sports. Has that perception of your diet as extreme or radical changed?

Mac Danzig: “Yeah! Over the last few years there have been a lot of changes in perception. When people first start realizing that I was Vegan, I was the odd man out. I was the only person in combat sports doing it. You know, there was one other random professional boxer who happened to be vegetarian, but his diet was filled up with cheese and whey protein, so that doesn’t really count. So I was the only guy. It didn’t matter how many fights I won, whenever I’d lose people would always criticize my diet. ‘Oh he doesn’t get enough meat and protein in his diet, that’s why he lost!’

But now you have fighters turning to similar diets for health reasons – guys like Jon Fitch, who use those diets for their training camps but not necessarily for moral or ethical reasons. So people see him doing well and they think, ‘Ok.’

Jake Shields has been a longtime vegetarian and he eliminates dairy and goes Vegan and people go, ‘Oh .’ And more and more people started doing it, so I don’t find myself getting criticized as much. I’ve been getting more and more positive feedback. People do seem more curious about the diet and more accepting.”

Curreri: Talk a little more about being a vegan pro athlete and getting enough protein.

Danzig: “I used to always get that, ‘Well what do you eat?’ ‘Where do you get your protein?’ I get that all the time.

The truth of the matter is that protein requirements are blown all out of proportion. We are led to believe that we need huge of amounts of protein for physical activity. People have been saying that for so long. The fact of the matter is, even if I did eat meat I wouldn’t be so focused on my protein intake. I wouldn’t worry that much about it because you get enough protein if you have a balanced diet. But so much of our society is based on what is printed in magazines and publications. All of that knowledge was handed down, literally, by the Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lou Ferrigno days … people who looked at bodybuilding as the ultimate way for Joe Schmoe to get in shape and be five percent closer to looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger. And that’s been going on for a long time. It goes hand in hand with this whole fitness mindset that has been going on for decades.

You don’t need one gram of protein per pound of body weight. You don’t need that at all. If you are regularly active and at a good weight, if you get more than 80 grams of protein a day then you are fine. The body can’t even process more than that, your liver can’t process more than that. If you give your body too much protein then it’s either going to turn it into energy or to fat. And your liver has to do all that.”

Curreri: Talk about your education as a vegan. What convinced you that this way of eating was ideal for you? What spurred you to go Vegan?

Danzig: “I’ve been researching nutrition for years and years, and not just being vegan, but nutrition in general. I’ve asked a lot of questions from knowledgeable people over the years, read books, read medical journals and stuff like that online. So I’ve been educating myself as much as possible for years and then using trial and error.

For years I didn’t do the Vegan diet even though personally, morally and ethically I wanted to. But I believed in what everyone else was saying, ‘You need meat! You need some kind of animal product, fish or chicken … to maintain your strength and muscle mass. As an athlete you need that.’ And I believed all of that.

Then I saw some examples of athletes that were Vegan and were getting good results and I thought, ‘You know what, I’m going to try it.’  

At the very beginning for me it was moral and ethical. In this day and age, buying animal and dairy products causes way more suffering and harm than it does good. Don’t get me wrong, yes, I love animals … but if we were in a different day and age like 100 or 200 years ago then, sure, I would do whatever I had to do to live. If I had to be a hunter-gatherer then I would. I might feel bad about it, but I would respect the animals that I killed and I would eat meat. But things are different. We don’t live in that day and age anymore. Today you have processed meats and a lot of animals suffering unnecessarily for it. Now, some people just blow that off and don’t have a conscience about it or they just don’t care. They wouldn’t eat their dog but they feel that way about other animals. But for me, I just decided to stop eating meat. I didn’t want to contribute to all of that. I’m not trying to change the world or wear that on my sleeve or make a political statement, because that just turns people away. I only have control over one person and that’s myself. And I feel good about it.

Curreri: Give us a day in the life of Mac Danzig grubbing.

Danzig: “It depends whether I’m in hard training. When I’m in hard training, like right now, I wake up in the morning, get some stuff done and I go train. I skip breakfast and the reason I do that is because if you train before you eat you will burn off the glycogen stores and the immediate fat sources that you have accumulated a lot quicker. So if you eat breakfast before you workout, then you are burning off some of what you just ate. I like to start with a clean slate for weight-cutting purposes.

So I go work out. After I work out I have a Vegan protein shake and mix that in a blender with mangoes, banana, coconut for the good fats, and some cashews. Then a little bit later I will have some sort of carbs … usually quinoa, because it has complex carbs and a lot of protein. I’ll add steamed vegetables and some kind of fruit. I snack throughout the day with fresh fruit. I try to only eat organic fruit and that’s where I get my sugar intake from. I stay as far away as possible from refined and processed sugars.

I go train and then when I’m done I’ll have a salad, usually with spinach and kale, with beans and legumes as the main source of protein. Sometimes I might eat Tofu or Tempeh. Tempeh is a little better because the processing and fermentation process that the soybean goes through is not as intense. Or I might add lima beans to my salad.

Later on at night I eat more fresh fruit, as always.”

Curreri: Tell us about the last time you ate meat.

Danzig: “The last time I remember eating meat was sometime in 2004. There was a guy who had a journal online and he offered examples of his diet alone. I had a boxing match coming up – this was before I started fighting in the UFC. So before the boxing match I decided to cut out animal products … At that point I had already cut out dairy and the only animals I was eating were chicken and fish. So I just cut them out and I was Vegan. So I ate some chicken breasts in my freezer because I didn’t want to waste it. It wasn’t good or bad. It didn’t make me want to eat any other meat or miss meat. That was just the last time I ate meat.

Curreri: Let’s harken back to your childhood days. What kind of diet did you have growing up?

Danzig: “Me and my mom didn’t have a whole lot of money. We both cared a lot about animals and hypothetically wanted to go vegetarian but we didn’t know how to do it. This is like the (1980s) and when you grow up in the Midwest or the East there was not a lot of information about it.

We just got by on what we could. I think I drank more 2 percent milk than any other liquid because we didn’t know any better and there were so many commercials about milk – like the milk campaigns that they are still doing. I drank so much milk that I ended up with an allergy to it.

A typical meal for me was white bread, baked potato, a side of lunch meat and milk. That was what I had a lot. It wasn’t good for me but when you’re a young kid you can process that. But if you go vegetarian or vegan you’re going to be making yourself so much healthier.”

Curreri: What is one of your Go-To meals, something that might be appetizing even to a non-vegan.

Danzig: “I eat a lot of vegan energy bars from Whole Foods. I’m really into Coconut milk to make curry, so I’ll make a yellow curry powder and mix it with coconut milk, put that over organic brown rice and add some stir fried vegetables with snow peas. If I have 20 minutes to prepare something, that’s something I might make.”

Curreri: You are featured in the relatively popular documentary “Forks Over Knives” and the film highlights your diet and profession, seemingly to show viewers that those who exclusively eat plants and fruits can still be tough guys and elite athletes. What was that experience like and what kind of feedback have you received?

Danzig: “Yeah, it was a short thing. They followed me for a day and then threw it in there. They don’t mention me too much, but it was good. That documentary was a big eye-opener for a lot of people, so it was good. I didn’t know it would be that successful because there are a lot of documentaries out there, and lots of times when you’re interviewed and videoed it never even gets off the ground so I never hold my breath. So I didn’t realize that documentary would have the impact that it did. I’ve had lots of feedback from different fighters, coaches and training partners that have seen it. All sorts of people hit me up by e-mail or Twitter to tell me they saw me in the film. A lot of times people were just watching and had no idea I was in it until they saw me in it.”

Dominick Cruz: Fights at 135 Pounds; Eats 5,000 Calories a Day

Tony Mandarich. One of the greatest offensive linemen in college history. And … arguably the biggest bust in the NFL draft history. A bear of a man — 310-pounds – who once estimated he consumed roughly 10,000 calories a day. Back in the late 1980s, the No.1 pick’s marathon eating blew a lot of minds.

Turns out, 135-pound world champ Dominick Cruz is quite the GI-normous grubber himself. Pound-for-pound, in fact, Cruz’s daily wolf-downs can go toe-to-toe with Mandarich’s famed caloric consumption. With little effort, it seems.

“He (Cruz) probably eats about 5,000 calories a day,” says Doug Balzarini, Strength and Nutrition coach for Cruz and the Alliance MMA Fight team.

The crazy thing is, with all that munching, Cruz said he has never topped 160 pounds in his life. Having to moonlight as a head coach for The Ultimate Fighter Live AND simultaneously train for a rubber match with arch rival Urijah Faber this summer, Cruz said calories are a huge deal with his ultra-busy schedule and quest to win his 10th straight fight. A fast-food diner for much of his pro career, Cruz (19-1) said age and body changes forced him to reform his anything-goes refueling. A month into his dramatic dietary transformation, one of the sport’s hardest and craftiest workers let us inside an aspect of his training that he feels will prolong his championship reign and longevity in the sport.

Dominick Cruz diet versus Urijah Faber diet. I asked Urijah and he said his diet wins by first round KO. You agree?

“Right now? Urijah’s not aware of my dietary shift. There’s a lot of things that Urijah is not aware of about me, but he continues to make assumptions, which is fine. Back in the day, I’ll give him a knockout on the diet. I ate like crap. I didn’t have a diet (chuckles)! But you can tell him this: even though Urijah had a knockout in the diet department, I beat the crap out of him on Carne Asada burritos and Jumbo jacks (sandwiches from the menu of the Jack in the Box restaurant). How’s that make him feel?”

Up until a month ago, what were you eating?

“When I was commander in chief of the diet, I ate whatever I wanted whenever I wanted. I just trained all the time and burned it all off. I built a nine fight winning streak on breakfast jacks and Carne Asada burritos, honestly. (Looks over at teammate Phil Davis). Phil eats as s—– as I did and he’s still shredded and a monster. So food is important no doubt, but age has something to do with it and it’s about longevity in your career. At some point you have to start taking good care of your body when you’re beating the crap out of it physically. You have to put good fuel in it. It’s a lifestyle change, and you’ve got to be willing to make the lifestyle change.”

What are the don’ts in your diet right now?

“I’m trying to stay away from sugar. No fast food. Again, Doug, my nutritionist knows better than me. I’m not going to sit here and pretend that I know a lot about this. There is a reason that I hired a professional to do this for me. I am 100 percent all-in at whatever he throws in front of me and tells me to eat, as long as I’m full at the end of the night.”

Least favorite new food that you are eating?

“The nastiest thing I’ve eaten so far (yells to Doug, his nutritionist). Hey Doug, what’s that nasty a—green lettuce that you make me eat?”

Doug: “Kale.”

“Yeah, I hate kale. Tastes like s—. But I’ll eat it, no problem. Whatever he puts in front of me.”

Why the shift in diet now?

“I’m getting older. I’m 27 and my body is changing. It’s getting harder to make 135 pounds. My workload is twice as much with TUF right now so it’s even more important that I stay healthy and eat clean and that my body burns fuel right. I started on this diet like a month ago. I feel great. I wish I had done it sooner but it was one of those things where you either have the time and the money for it, or you don’t. And up until recently I didn’t.”

A lot of people have problems dramatically changing their diets, like going cold turkey and switching things up on their taste buds. Have you experienced any of those kinds of withdrawals or cravings?

Cruz: No, I love eating and I love the taste of food, but I’m all about getting what I need in me to perform and have my body run right. So if it tastes like crap I will eat it anyway. I just want to feel good when I train.

Give fans an idea of a typical day in the eating life of Dominick Cruz.

“I’ll wake up at like three in the morning and have a whey protein shake, I’d say it’s about 600 calories. I go back to bed and wake up again at 7:30 (a.m.) and have a five egg omelet with spinach, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, egg whites and two pieces of … ummm…(yells to his strength and conditioning coach, who is seated nearby, and says, ‘Hey what kind of bread is it that you make me?”)

Doug: “Ezekiel or whole grain.”

“Yeah, Ezekiel bread. Man, this guy will tell you better than I can. So I have that meal at 7:30 a.m., then I go to the TUF set, coach and then I have a Vitargo shake. It’s a supplement drink. I’m hypoglycemic, so it gets my blood sugar back in line before I go to train. So I drink that and train. After training I eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with organic peanut butter, organic jelly and Ezekiel bread. I have a protein shake with that as well.

“Then I go home and eat lunch. Lunch can be anything from chicken breast, broccoli, to sweet potato, to pasta with ground turkey meat, organic tomato sauce, stuff like that. A big meal.

“Then I’ll rest, go back to TUF and coach my team. After coaching, I’ll have another Vitargo shake before my personal evening practice. Then I go home and have my biggest meal of the day – it might be ground turkey patties with vegetables and a huge salad, another sweet potato. I’ll eat any complex carb mixed with protein and vegetables.”

That’s a massive amount of eating and it sounds like that’s important because you want to be as big as you can before making the cut to 135 pounds … is that correct?

“Right. My philosophy is, no matter how much I eat, with how hard I train I will never get over 160 pounds. That’s the heaviest I have ever been in my life. I walk around no heavier than 155 pounds. So I’m trying to stay heavy and put on as much muscle as possible in between fights. Then, three weeks out of my fight, that’s when I’ll start to cut my diet. I get down to about 150 pounds two weeks out of a fight.

“I’m doing two of my own workouts a day, plus two workouts coaching my team at TUF.”

Obvious question: You’ve always had great cardio and been a great athlete, so that’s never been a problem. So what advantages have you specifically experienced with this more nutritious and advanced diet?

“The biggest thing is, with coaching TUF and training for a title fight, I have a heavier workload now than at any time in my career, besides when I worked full-time and trained fighting full-time years ago. But that’s what I’m doing again now. That’s four workouts a day, so it’s extremely important to get all the vegetables and nutrients and eat as much as possible throughout the day so I don’t atrophy my muscles. My energy levels are a lot higher and I’m not quite as lethargic in between training sessions. It might even help with alleviating lactic acid in the body and having less sickness because you’re getting the nutrients that you need.”

Talk about being hypoglycemic.

“I’ve been like that since high school. I get light-headed, really, really agitated and cranky when my sugar levels are off. And I’ll shake profusely, even in the middle of training. So I have to get sugar in my body and usually the Vitargo gets me set again.”

If you had the time to cook, what would be your go-to meal?

“I can’t cook. I suck at cooking. I’m too lazy.”

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