As Dustin Poirier chows down his food, a blonde woman can be seen on the television in the background. She’s decorating what appears to be a cake with something colorful — jujubes, perhaps? — as Poirier mutters an “ah, man” under his breath.
“When I cut weight I like to watch the Food Network,” Poirier explains in this scene of 2011 documentary “Fightville,” before addressing his desire to swim in a “pool of ice cream.”
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An off-camera voice asks what else sounds good at that moment.
“How much time you got?” a young-looking Poirier replies. “I love ice cream. Like, the cookies? Like ice cream sandwiches? What! And they make a peanut butter one — it’s at Walmart. Between the two chocolate things, the ice cream is peanut butter flavored. I eat a whole box of them after I fight.”
Poirier, who most recently lost to Khabib Nurmagomedov in a UFC lightweight title unification effort at UFC 242, had just been explaining what he was eating at that point of his weight cut. As he grilled the “six- to eight-ounce” piece of fish that he was allowed to eat with “a little bit of sides” three times a day, he showed a jar of raw, organic coconut butter.
“It is so horrible,” Poirier said. “I’m supposed to be taking this because I’m not eating any carbohydrates, really. Besides the quinoa, but that’s not too many — and your body needs energy, so it doesn’t break down the muscles.”
Watching others prepare and enjoy decadent food items on TV while limiting his own calories and macronutrients might seem like some people’s very definition of hell, but living vicariously during weight cuts isn’t a Poirier exclusive. Fellow UFC lightweight Paul Felder, for instance, was feasting in all kinds of visual junk food as he talked to The Athletic ahead of a UFC 242 meeting with Edson Barboza in September and promptly accepted our own Shaheen Al-Shatti’s invitation to see a picture of the steak he’d packed away earlier.
Interestingly enough, had the offer been made to the other half of that week’s co-headliner in Abu Dhabi, there’s a chance the answer might have been the same.
“I’m one of those who like watching food channels while I’m cutting weight,” Barboza told me with a laugh. “We feed the mind, at least, since we can’t eat literally.”
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As anyone who follows fighters on social media might have noticed, Poirier, Felder and Barboza aren’t alone in their food-ogling habits.
UFC heavyweight Juan Adams, for one, isn’t above sharing visual representations of what’s been on his mind during cuts.
To prove that the trolls will always find something to say, i take a break from berating my opponent(the fight is happening in 2 days so no point in talking about it anymore) and post what’s on my mind during the last stretch of my cut. pic.twitter.com/HkjyL9UexM
— Juan Adams UFC (@chosenjuan285) July 18, 2019
Molly McCann, who fights in the UFC’s women’s flyweight division, has tweeted about going to bed watching “food porn” on her phone next to the hashtag #weightcutproblems.
Invicta FC’s DeAnna Bennet has shared her Thanksgiving experiences of “staring intensely at a family member, telling them to eat slower while drooling as they ate all the good stuff and all while I slowly nibbled my dry unseasoned 2 ounces of turkey.”
UFC flyweight Alex Perez, for his part, told me he uses shows like “Chopped” and “Iron Chef” to manage his cravings.
Considering the “powerful cue the sight of appealing food can be for the brain, especially the brain of a hungry person,” as defined in this 2016 research on the idea of visual hunger, it isn’t entirely surprising that some fighters like to give their eyes the treats that their palates can’t taste.
But as is usually the case with anything in fighting — or in the general spectrum of the human experience, really — this isn’t a practice that works across the board.
A self-proclaimed “chocolate psychopath,” Poliana Botelho doesn’t like watching food-related shows in her spare time. If being in the presence of food is inevitable, though, she likes to treat another sense to it — she asks to catch a whiff of her friends’ chow. Former 205-pound UFC title challenger Glover Teixeira doesn’t go out of his way to watch, either, but he believes being around off-limits cuisine while he sticks to his diet makes him mentally stronger. ONE Championship’s, John Lineker, in turn, is annoyed just by having food around him when he’s not participating in the feasts.
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And how do we know all of these details about these fighters and their relationships with food, dieting and cravings?
Well, we asked.
While we were at it, we asked a few of their peers, too. And then we compiled some of their answers. Check them out below.
Edson Barboza, UFC lightweight
I’m one of those who like watching food channels while cutting weight. We feed the mind, at least, since we can’t eat literally. We feed the mind when we watch food channels.
Honestly, I don’t suffer too much. All of my weight cuts have been OK. My first professional kickboxing fight in Brazil, at age 17 or 16, I fought at 155 pounds. I’m 33 and I’m still fighting at 155 pounds. So I’ve been dieting my whole life, and I have never dieted because I’ve always had very regimented eating. So I honestly don’t suffer too much to make weight.
I don’t have any rituals. My ritual is that same old classic — after lunch and dinner, I have to put some sugar in. Even during fight week, after lunch and dinner, I always have a little piece of chocolate. And then, after the fight — it’s funny, because when we’re cutting weight, we think “I want to eat this, this and that.” And then, after the fight is over, I get back to eating normally.
After weigh-ins, we want to drink water. I think that’s the toughest part, being dehydrated. But after the fight, maybe (I want to) have a two-pound bag of M&Ms by me and eat it all. It’s one of the things that I want to do in my mind. But, like I said, after the fight is over, I end up not even doing it. I go back to eating well and to my everyday routine.
I never dieted in my whole life. I’ve always eaten well. I’m always in shape. I don’t like looking in the mirror and feeling bad, not liking what I see. So, no, I maintain a diet that isn’t a diet. It’s a food discipline that lasts year-round. I eat well all year.
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John Lineker, ONE Championship bantamweight
The food I miss the most when I’m dieting and cutting weight is pizza. I’d rather not have food around. I really want to eat everything. I get really stressed with food around.
Before the fight, right after the weigh-ins, I hydrate and I eat chicken pizza with catupiry, a Brazilian type of creamy cheese, and pasta. Before I go into the fight, I like to eat Doritos. I feel good.
I used to go around eating everything I couldn’t eat while I was on the diet after the fight, but nowadays I’m controlling myself more.
J.P. Saint Louis, LFA welterweight
When I’m cutting weight, I often think about a double bacon cheeseburger with lettuce, tomato, with onion rings, barbecue sauce and mayo. I also want two orders of French fries and some cheese curds and mozzarella sticks. I also think about mac and cheese with candied yams in an egg roll to be fried up.
When I’m cutting weight, I become obsessed with those videos of people cooking in the wild or natives cooking in their villages cooking copious amounts of food. Or just Americans doing some hunting and outdoor cooking. The one thing that can save me from being hungry is watching a video that uses avocado for anything/on anything. I hate them, and I literally have tested it out. I even try to watch it when I’m close to weigh-ins as a distraction, though it doesn’t work out too well, usually.
After my heartburn has settled after the fight, I usually have either a double bacon cheeseburger, fish and chips, or some chicken wings and french fries. But if there’s one thing I really want after fights but rarely have, is Haitian food. Griot, diri djon djon, banan peze, sos pwa, legume, etc. It always makes me think of my mom and family, because I train out of Milwaukee and my parents are in Florida.
I used to just go ham for weeks after the fight, but I’ve gotten better with that. I’ll still eat very very good, though.
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Poliana Botelho, UFC flyweight
When I do the diet, I actually do it through the entire camp. The camp lasts nine weeks. I think I start it a little before that. I follow it to a T. Even when the weekend comes, I don’t eat anything. I cut everything, so I end up missing many things. But what I’m crazy about is chocolate. I’m a massive chocoholic, but in camp, I cut it out entirely. I only eat what’s on my diet, so you end up missing a lot of things. It’s almost like, just because you can’t, you want to eat it; when we can, we don’t even want it. I really like Japanese food, as well. I don’t really care about savory food as much. My thing is more with chocolate. But other than chocolate, it’s Japanese. They’re the two things that are harder to go without.
I don’t like watching food channels, but sometimes I have to go somewhere where a friend of mine is eating and I like smelling it. I say, “Give it to me. Let me smell it.” I’ll smell it just to feel satisfied. Sometimes I’ll smell chocolate and not eat it. But I don’t like seeing food, like at home. It’s only when I have to see it, like when someone’s around me eating it, then I smell it.
Maintaining a diet out of camp is tough. I find it very hard. It’s something that I want to be able to do, like, if I don’t have a fight scheduled or anything, to maintain a good diet. But it’s tough. Sometimes during the week, I’m able to, but then on the weekends, I slip. I think I have a very tough time with it. It’s something that, as a professional athlete, I think I need to do. I’m trying to achieve that goal, to fix that “flaw” of not being able to stick to a diet. During camp, though, it’s total focus. I want to eat things, but I’m able to go without them. It’s totally fine.
When I fought at 115, I’d hit the weight and end up hitting the junk food because the diet was so strict. But nowadays I try to control it and eat the things that I really like.
When I’m in camp, I dream — well, not dream. No, I have nightmares that I’m eating chocolate. Nightmares! It’s so real that I get desperate, like, “I’m eating this. I shouldn’t be eating this. Oh my God!” Sometimes I wake up feeling satiated, like I ate it in my dream. But to me it’s not even a dream; it’s a nightmare. It’s awful because I feel for real like I’m eating, that my weight will go up. It’s crazy.
Cody Stamann, UFC bantamweight
During a weight cut, food is gold. It goes from being a necessity to a privilege. I go from eating a healthy diet 80 percent of the time to eating a perfect diet 100 percent, with little to no room for anything that isn’t an absolute necessity. Portion sizes decrease, and 90 percent of what I eat becomes a vegetable. My protein intake becomes plain and lean.
The crazy thing is, when you’re actually hungry, everything tastes good. It takes about two to three weeks for me to transition from a normal diet to a fight camp diet. In that period I’m irritable, I crave every single food, and everyone is an asshole for being able to eat shit I can’t. Your body literally goes through withdrawals.
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Once you get past that stage, it’s pretty easy. You feel better, healthier, more aware, mentally much more clear. It’s insane, the difference. Next is fight week, and the actual weight cut. For me, it’s the hardest part of the entire job. For this last fight, I started at 174 pounds, three months from fight night, at 13.5 percent body fat. The last week before the fight, I was 150 pounds, 3-5 percent body fat (give or take a few pounds for water weight).
I have to lose about a gallon and a half of water to make weight after I have been dieting. To say it’s extreme is an understatement. It’s the most physically and mentally challenging thing I have personally ever done. You have to work out, sit in a sauna or hot tub, and literally sweat that weight out. You can feel your heart beating in your body. Everything hurts in ways that are unnatural. It’s dangerous, but when performed correctly gives you a huge advantage on fight night.
Glover Teixeira, UFC light heavyweight
I get the desire to eat an American burger during the diet — those American burgers that are intense, a big cheeseburger, full of bacon. That’s what I’m just waiting to eat. But, when I’m in Brazil, what I miss is the local food from my home state of Minas Gerais. All the food from there. Food that makes you fat. This guy wants to get fat, because of all that time dieting.
I don’t mind seeing food, but I don’t go around look at it, either. I don’t mind it, because I think it makes me stronger — the discipline, the strong mind, you know, as you stick to your diet. When I’m out with friends, they can eat whatever they want, but I don’t go around tuning into channels.
I suffer a little at the beginning of camp, for sure. It’s not even suffering — but there’s the desire, the habits of drinking a bit of wine, eating something fattier, beef or a burger. I miss it a lot early on, in the first two weeks. After that, I think my body hits its groove, and I’m able to stick to it well.
I don’t have any rituals. I’ll eat whatever’s in front of me after the fight. Cold pizza — whatever is in front of me, I’ll eat it. Especially if I win the fight, you’re so happy that you’ll eat anything — cookies, whatever is there, Especially now that the UFC has that green room where they have all that food. People get there, and they can eat all they want. It’s so good.
I usually like burgers, very fatty meats. But I drink, too, so usually the day after a fight I’m curing the hangover.
Eryk Anders, UFC middleweight/light heavyweight
I crave everything I can’t have. Everything.
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I would rather not be around it, but I can manage my cravings if I’m around food. I eat until I can’t anymore for a few days after the fight, but then I go back to regular dieting.
I’ve got a sweet tooth, so I like anything sweet. I go hard in the paint after a fight.
Polyana Viana, UFC strawweight
I think I really miss salt. When I’m dieting, we kind of take salt off the food almost entirely. So when it’s over, what I immediately want to eat is something with a little bit of salt.
I like watching food shows on TV. I save everything and say I’m going to make it later. I also like watching people eating. I like cooking for others. Torturing myself, right?
For me, the weight cut for fights isn’t hard. I think I’m actually one of the lightest fighters in my division. I usually weigh 125 pounds. But I still suffer a little because, like it or not, I still have to restrict my food a little. I dream of food and, as I said, I like watching others eat. But, on the day of, it isn’t so hard to make weight. There isn’t that suffering, feeling sick.
I really like pasta. I eat it after weigh-ins, and I like eating it after the fight. But, usually, they don’t make it — because we eat right there, at the venue. Since they don’t make it, I eat what’s available. Days after the fight, I control myself. Because sometimes I’ve already satisfied my desire to eat junk food. So I control myself a lot. I like eating healthy, so it’s easy.
Warlley Alves, UFC welterweight and “TUF” champ
What I miss the most before the fight is being able to eat my feijoada, which is a typical Brazilian dish with beans and various types of beef and pork, and açaí, which I really like. That hurts me. I really miss it.
I like watching “Masterchef” and things like that, but it’s not just during fight time. I like to watch these types of shows all the time. After weigh-ins, it’s certain that I’ll eat pizza at night. And on Monday, after Saturday’s fight, I always eat burgers.
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Rani Yahya, UFC bantamweight
I really like açaí. Throughout camp, I’ll eat açaí, about 300 milliliters, practically every day. It’s something that gives me a lot of energy. I really like eating pizza and sushi, too, so when weigh-ins are over, I go for both. That’s usually mostly after the fight, though, because even after weigh-ins we try to keep it more regimented. Peanuts, too — I really like them, as well, so I always end up eating peanut butter and bread. I’m kind of addicted to peanuts. I’ve been trying to keep it more controlled, though some cravings remain. I really like chocolate, too, so I end up having that. Passatempo — a Brazilian stuffed cookie, which is very common among kids — I like those as well.
But I’ve been able to control it better, and I don’t intend to go too far off from my weight after the fight. I think after both my last fights, I was able to maintain it and not to lose too much focus on the diet. More and more, as I get more experienced, I’m able to walk the line.
Nowadays, I’m OK with watching people eating in front of me and with watching food commercials and all that stuff. It doesn’t get to me. The only thing I always try to watch out for is during the night because there are usually social events, people who are with me want to go to dinner, and I have a very very light meal at night. I feel that with my biotype, it’s when I eat little at night that my weight goes down. So, at night, I always say, “Look, I’m not even going to go to dinner. I’m going to bed.” It’s the one time I feel like I need to keep a little more to myself. I’d rather be alone.
Nowadays, when I’m off-camp, I’m already starting my diet. I’m trying to lead a more regimented, more balanced lifestyle, so I don’t suffer as much during camp or at weigh-ins. It’s been working out super well for me. I’ve been getting my weight low ahead of time. Right now, I’m about to start camp for a fight, and I’m already at a very good weight. It’s going to help me out a lot because I’m going to be able to train pretty much at the weight I’m going to be on fight night. That helps me preserve my body and to train well. I think that’s important. It’s something most fighters should adhere to, dieting while off-camp, too.
After weigh-ins, we have to start slow — drinking a lot of fluids and starting with fruit before moving on to pasta. Plenty of nuts, too. After the fight, as odd as it may seem, I don’t have that desire to destroy and eat everything. We’ve spent so long eating well that, when there’s a green light to eat whatever we want, I start missing it. I start enjoying eating salad, that stricter diet. Nowadays, it takes me a little while to get back to the normal diet and to make those everyday slip-ups. But it hasn’t always been like this. When I was a little younger, I’d leave the fight and head straight to McDonald’s.
Modestas Bukauskas, Cage Warriors light heavyweight champion
I have the most horrendous sweet tooth known to man. That’s the one thing I massively, massively crave when in camp: chocolates, sweets.
After I’ve made weight, I go absolutely mad at the bakery. It’s probably a crime how much sugar I consume in one sitting.
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Glaico Franca, PFL welterweight
I really like pizza, but I don’t eat it during camp since I’m lowering weight. We see a lot of fighters who wait until weigh-ins and eat everything they have in front of them. I do that after the fight. I like to keep high-quality eating after weigh-ins because the most important day is fight night. So I eat pizza and other stuff that I like after the fight.
I don’t have any problems talking about food or watching food-related videos and channels when I’m cutting weight. It’s funny, because when we went to “The Ultimate Fighter” in 2015, there was me, Nazareno Malegarie, Alexandre Cidade and Erick “Indio Brabo” da Silva, and we talked about food the entire trip. And we couldn’t eat too much because we all were cutting weight to fight.
For me, it actually isn’t hard to diet to cut weight and to eat well to fight. Because it’s my job, right? The same way that I make the most of it when I don’t have a fight, when I do have a fight I try to eat very well, in order to train well and, especially, to fight well on fight night.
An interesting food-related habit I have is that, when I have a fight, when the fight is at 7 p.m. or even a little later, I like to have my last meal way before the fight. Perhaps about eight hours before, so I’m very hungry. and I get there fired up and perform the best way possible. And, also, so that I know that my blood is all in my muscles. Sometimes, we see athletes fighting, and they ate too much on fight night. They’re heavy, and their body is still spending energy to digest that food. That might cause them problems during the fight. So I like to do that — eat well before, so I’m not heavy during the fight.
Once the fight is over, the first thing I like to eat and crave is pizza — white chocolate pizza with strawberries is my favorite. I try to dedicate myself during the fight preparation and during the fight so that when the fight is over, I can eat all the junk food I want. Since I worked so hard to get there, once it’s done I eat a ton of junk food like donuts and ice cream with Nutella.
(Top photo: Scott Barbour / Getty)
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