A detailed account of making weight with a UFC fighter
FoxSports.com’s Elias Cepeda spent his time at UFC 183 going through the entire weight cut with UFC lightweight Joe Lauzon to give us an inside look at the process.
Cutting weight is a big part of professional mixed martial arts, but the process is different from camp to camp and fighter to fighter and much of it is a unknown process to the casual fan. That is why FoxSports.com’s Elias Cepeda spent his time at UFC 183 going through the entire weight cut with UFC lightweight Joe Lauzon to give us an inside look at the process:
A sauna door that lingers on its swinging path from open to closed, lets in “cold” air, and messes with the sweat inside. One prohibition that didn’t exist with Lauzon, at least, was against talking.
We all talked, a lot. Over the next two days, the topics ranged from silly to serious, and everything in between.
There was discussion of rivals, teammates, the UFC’s new deal with Reebok, relationships, and much more. I let Joe, Chris, Jimmy, and Brandon (Maze was too smart to join us for the cutting sessions) take the lead with conversation, at first, uncertain of how the fighter felt about frivolity while going through this process.
It soon became clear that he welcomed it as a distraction. That night, after the first cut, in his hotel room, he would likely not have the same ability to separate himself from the dry, thudding, and waiting pain of dehydration.
“The talking helps a lot,” Joe said.
The talking, and the mere presence of supporters, was support. I don’t know what Joe felt, but as I stood up out of the tub for the first time, after forty minutes or so of that and the sauna, combined, I felt the type of light headedness from losing water, that had always prompted me to grab a water bottle and stop a soak, in the past.
Now, however, I saw other guys around me going through the same, or much worse, and figured that if they could do it, I could. Also, I knew if I fell down or something, they were there to pick my dumb ass up and call 9-1-1.
After the sauna, Jimmy and Brandon rigged up a wrap on the spar floor using towels for Joe, and another for myself. Joe called the wrap a “burrito.”
I imagine the thought of food comforted him a bit, during this hungry time. “We stay here until we stop sweating,” Joe explained to me while on the floor, all cocooned up.