Craig White made his octagon debut at UFC Fight Night 130, having taken on Neil Magny on short notice. While White lost the match, the fighter has since come forward to reveal that he dropped a stunning 46 pounds for the fight.
Speaking to MMA Fighting, White offered his thoughts on the matter.
“For the John Redmond fight, I did 17 kilos (37-pounds) in nine days, it was horrendous. I got rid of eight kilos in water that time. I had never used salt baths before that. I genuinely felt like I was going to die when I was walking to the scales that time.”
“Of course, I said I’d never do it again. I promised my coach [Dave Matthews] and my girlfriend that I’d never do it again. Then, the phone rings about two weeks before UFC Liverpool and Graham Boylan is asking me if I’m available to fight Neil Magny.
“In that moment, the Redmond cut was the first thing that crossed my mind. At that stage, I was out of camp and I was the heaviest I’d ever been. All I could hear in my head was, ‘You’re 98 kilos (216-pounds) — what the f*ck are you doing?’ Two seconds later I accepted the fight.”
“I got stuck at about 87 kilos (191-pounds). You always get to a stage where you begin to plateau and that was it for me. The thing is, you know it usually takes a few days for the weight to start moving again, but I really didn’t have all that much time to work with. I ended up doing a monstrous session and suddenly I was 84 kilos (185-pounds).”
