Beyond The Fight: Benavidez vs. Johnson

JOHNSON

(Referring to first UFC flyweight cut before March 3 fight against Ian McCall)

“I cut out completely all carbs in my whole entire diet, and it sucked. I made the weight real easy. I only cut one pound the day of. When I went back to rehydrating, my body just couldn’t keep the nutrients or anything. So when I stepped in the Octagon, you can still see that I was so drawn, I was still skinny, I just couldn’t keep the weight on. I learned a huge lesson about that, that you don’t want to take something out of your body that your body needs. Especially for mixed martial arts, because it’s a carb-induced sport. You need a lot of energy in a short amount of time. So I learned my lesson. I think some people get away with it. For me, it doesn’t work well for my body. For me, I need my carbs.”

BENAVIDEZ

“When I fought at 135, I would only really get up to 147, 48. My lifestyle didn’t change, nothing really changed. I always ate my same kind of diet and kind of food. But at 25, when I deprived myself of carbs and ice cream and all that stuff that you really like, when I got back up to my regular weight of like 46 or 47, I kept binging because I had gone two, three months without having that stuff. So since I’ve made 125, I’ve been heavier than I’ve ever been when I was at 135.

During camp, I still do get ice cream and frozen yogurt and desserts all the time. But I don’t have a big sweet tooth, so I can do those here and there. But with cereal and pizza, the only way for me to go on those is just, like, all-out. Like, if I sit and eat cereal, it’s five bowls. If I sit and eat pizza, it’s a whole pizza. So I totally cut those out. I just use whole milk only with cereal, that’s the only way I eat it, and then literally I can eat like a whole box. And then with pizza, the same thing. So those are two things I give up the whole time. When I’m done (with the fight) I literally go to the store and buy six boxes of cereal and two gallons of milk, and just have an all-out fest.”