Once Conor McGregor heard that he no longer had to make 155 lbs at UFC 196, one of his first phonecalls was to his nutritionist George Lockhart.
‘The Notorious’ told Lockhart that he didn’t need his weight-cutting services for fight week once Rafael dos Anjos withdrew as McGregor had the luxury of competing at the weight he was already at for his welterweight fight with Nate Diaz.
As for McGregor’s diet in that final week leading up to March 5… who knows? Lockhard certainly doesn’t.
“I don’t know what his nutrition was the last week,” Lockhart told MMAjunkie. “I honestly don’t know what he was doing. I was out there for Holly Holm that fight because he wasn’t cutting and we didn’t really meet him.”
McGregor’s rematch with Diaz also takes place at welterweight, in the main event of UFC 202, but the Irishman will not be making the same mistake again as he is drafting in Lockhart to ensure he gets the proper nutrition for fight week even though he doesn’t have to worry about dropping weight.
“I head out there this week to make sure he’s taken care of, feeling good and that his performance is top-notch,” Lockhart continued. “When you don’t have to worry about that (weight cut), it’s super simple. We can give him as much energy and food as he needs based on the requirements of the performance.
“Obviously, we’re not really cutting this fight, so it’s all about performance, which is fun. It makes my job fun. This time, we’re going to take a look at everything and make sure it’s on point and he’s giving the body what it needs.”
A misconception existed ahead of UFC 196 as most gave McGregor a decided endurance advantage considering the fact that he didn’t have to deplete his body by cutting weight but Lockhart has revealed that sometimes it doesn’t work like that and weight cuts can actually make sure that fighters are at their physical peak.
But the in-demand nutritionist and former fighter is confident that now that McGregor has spent enough time training at his current weight, he should feel more comfortable and not gas in the UFC 202 headliner.
“What a lot of people don’t realize is that sometimes cutting weight is a blessing in disguise,” Lockhart said. “When people don’t have weight to cut, they do their workout and their drills and then that’s it. They don’t do any road work or anything like that, because they don’t need to.
“When you have a big weight cut ahead of you, you do road work every day, which increases the aerobic capacity, which helps you recover quicker. What the science has shown is that, if you lose 10 pounds – not in a continuum – you can decrease your VO2 max by 10 percent, and that’s insane.
“But he has given himself time to get used to this weight and formulate a game plan.”
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