Just as he was preparing to cut the pounds, Conor McGregor got the call. He would not be fighting Rafael dos Anjos at 155lbs.
As most of us know by know, McGregor opted to fight at welterweight instead. It looked a bad call when he ran out of steam against Nate Diaz, who weighed over 180lbs for the bout.
McGregor’s best shots were absorbed.
Beaten but undeterred, he goes up against Diaz again at UFC 200.
Defeat offers an opportunity to learn so it is interesting to hear George Lockhart, McGregor’s nutritionist, talk about the changes made in the short lead-up to that fight. According to Lockhart, they were mere tweaks:
“Once he found out he was at 170, there was not really a need for the cut any more. It was not like he was having to pack on a bunch of extra weight or anything like that.
“The eating was still the same. You want to eat clean and keep the same principles that we have with everybody. Types of food, times of food, hormonal response to the food and then the portion sizes.”
Diaz usually fights at lightweight and, due to the short notice (11 days) of his call-up, a catch-weight of 160lbs. McGregor told him to get comfortable but found the going far from that on March 5.
Lockhart preferred to steer clear of talk that McGregor’s bigger bulk affected his performance against Diaz.
“The Diaz brothers [Nate and Nick] have cardio for days. The shots that Nate took? I was blown away.
“I’m talking in general, when somebody has got extra weight – the more muscle you have, the more oxygen your body is using. It takes a lot of oxygen to give the muscles the fuel to keep doing what they are doing.
“The more muscle you have, the easier it is to gas out.”
Lockhart says McGregor will cut some weight for UFC 200 but it will not be a lot.
The nutritionist will stay in McGregor’s houses, in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, in the lead-up to the fight and be preparing him specific meals every three hours.
