Flyweight Deiveson Figueiredo thinks back on his harsh weight cutting process for his UFC Nashville bout with Jussier Formiga.
Sometimes weight cutting can reach extreme levels.
Although not that unusual, most fighters prefer not to reveal how much extra weight they need to shed before a fight, especially in a case such as UFC Nashville’s Deiveson Figueiredo, who told Combate he needed to brush off a whopping 39 pounds in order to make weight for his bout against fellow flyweight contender Jussier Formiga.
Despite the enormous amount of weight Figueiredo had to cut, the Brazilian explained the process wasn’t all that straining and only left him stressed out and craving junk food such as pizza and soft drinks.
“The weight cut was actually good, I made weight quite easily. I got a little emotional, making weight is your first win and I was very professional, that made me emotional,” Deiveson said. “I was walking around at 165 for this fight, so I was really heavy, maybe even more than that. The diet was very strict, only proteins and raw salads. I had to cut 39 pounds in three months. It was an intense diet, but thank God I was able to cut it really well, without starving, I only got a little stressed out. Some fruits helped me, I ate a lot of oranges at lunch. Eating fruit killed some of the cravings I had for other foods and made me a little less stressed.”
“Spending all this time eating nothing but raw salads and proteins got me very stressed out,” Figueiredo continued. “That’s one of the reasons I was so glad I made weight. I missed eating pizza and drinking soda. I’m not much of a soda guy, but you really miss those things in times like these, hamburgers, too. I love roast beef, so I really missed that. It was gratifying to make weight, now I can take one week off after the fight and go after all my cravings.”
Since he was cleared by his nutritionist to pig out on fruit, Deiveson decided to really go at it the day just before the weigh-ins, revealing to have eaten nearly a dozen strawberries in the afternoon and more in the evening, which fortunately did not affect his weight cut.
“I ate 11 strawberries in the afternoon, then I ate the rest that night,” Figueiredo said. “It was funny, my coaches were desperate, they thought my weight would go up, but my nutritionist was with me for every step of the way. She said I could eat some fruits to get rid of the stress. My weight didn’t go up that much, I woke up on weight.”
Despite being able to make the limit for the flyweight division, Figueiredo does plan to move to bantamweight in the future, but not before trying to score UFC gold at his weight class.
“I think about moving up a lot, but I have goal to fight and win the belt before that. Once I have it, I’ll ask to move up and then I’ll go after the bantamweight belt, too.”
Deiveson Figueiredo is scheduled to take on Jussier Formiga at UFC Fight Night 148, in Nashville, Tennessee, on March 23. The card will be headlined by a welterweight match between Stephen Thompson and Anthony Pettis.