Eating Right, Fighting Better

When guys like Chuck Liddell, known for his trademark gut, are having every meal prepackaged by a nutritionist and working out 4-5 times a week, 2-3 times a day, you know something is up in the world of MMA nutrition and fitness. Put another way, if a guy works as hard as Liddell on nutrition and still looks like Liddell, then what is Georges St. Pierre eating? Air and vegetables?

Personal trainer to the MMA stars, Mariano Mendoza, operates under a “eat good, fight great” mantra. He has his clients eating 5 small meals a day, primarily composed of proteins, starches, and fruits. His strategy is designed to help fighters stay healthy and lose their weight over a long period of time, not the 10-15 pound cutting routine that can cut down on energy and productivity in the cage.

This seems like an excellent formula considering some of the trouble that UFC stars have had in the past when they combine over cutting with overtraining. Frank Trigg, former welterweight competitor, was notorious for this routine and many speculated that it led to his string of losses.

While eating healthily is a consistent strategy when cutting, fighters may eat fatty foods and extra carbs following the weigh-in in an attempt to be significantly larger than their opponent. At UFC 81, Brock Lesnar weighed in at 265 compared to Frank Mir’s paltry 255. After the weigh-ins, Lesnar commented that he expected to get up to 300 pounds for the night of the fight. He seemed to put on this weight, but perhaps he should have been spending less time eating and more time training – Lesnar was submitted with a knee bar early in the first round.

As far as supplements are concerned, they an obvious (although generally unspoken) addition to a fighter’s “diet.” While a few fighters, such as Forrest Griffin, will do advertisements for their favorite brand of creatine, most keep the discussion on the down low. We asked Sean Sherk about his supplements and while he wouldn’t provide specifics, he did say that when the sanctioning body (NSAC, CSAC, etc.) come out with banned substances, he goes through the ingredients of his supplements one by one Interestingly enough, the UFC sells supplements right in their online store, promoting Xyience, their long time sponsor.

Between a healthy balanced diet and limiting weight gain following the weigh-in, all that today’s modern fighter really needs to worry about is staying legal with the commissions. If he can juggle all that and look like an extra from the movie 300, he deserves to be fighting among the greats.