Cutting weight, in Sean O’Malley’s words, “feels like you’re dying”. The process involves dehydrating your body and shedding at times double digit pounds of water weight, which can dehydrate your organs and make your body feel like it’s dying. However, to make the process more tolerable, former UFC featherweight champ, Ilia Topuria has a simple trick—drink lots of wine.
“So the thing is that when I drink half a litre of wine, and you know that on Thursday it’s a very hard night for every fighter because it’s a day before the weigh-ins. So it’s hard to sleep, it’s hard to rest, but I drink half a litre of wine. I get very buzzed, very buzzed and I have very… such a great time with everyone… It’s like we change the atmosphere, you know? We don’t think about the fighting, we just celebrate, and I go to sleep like a baby,” Topuria told Michael Bisping in a recent interview.
And UFC veteran Matt Brown thinks this penchant for wine may be the reason Topuria is moving to lightweight. ‘El Matador’s coach Jorge Climent has claimed the main reason he is moving up is because he hates making 145 because of the suffering it involves. And Brown feels that the reason Topuria finds weight cuts so hard is because of his penchant for wine.
“Just my first thought when I heard it was like he’s pretty small for 155. He wasn’t big for 145. I was surprised he said he had a hard time making that weight. I’ve only seen him on TV, I haven’t seen him in person or anything but he says he likes to drink wine when he cuts weight. Maybe that’s why you’re not making weight, buddy. Stop drinking wine, drink some f—ing water, bro,” Brown told MMA Fighting in a recent interview.
Moving up a division, of course, is pretty difficult because of the bigger opponents you have to face as a fighter. And being undersized, as Brown fears Topuria is, would be a pretty big disadvantage. And Brown isn’t the only one concerned about ‘El Matador’s weight. This concern about Topuria’s size is also shared by Dustin Poirier.
“I’ve never seen him in person, but everybody says he’s heavy, that he walks around heavy, but if he can make 145, I don’t know how big he is because some of these lightweights are huge,” ‘The Diamond’ told Submission Radio in a recent interview. Of course, when talking about Topuria moving up to lightweight, the biggest talking point is whether or not he deserves to fight Islam Makhachev right away. And Brown actually had a pretty reasonable view on it.
Matt Brown explains why Islam Makhachev is justified in denying Ilia Topuria a title shot
Well, Matt Brown is more sympathetic to Islam Makhachev’s stand on an Ilia Topuria clash than most fans and analysts. Topuria, of course, wanted to fight the 155-pound champ right after he moved up. But the Dagestani has refused, and wants ‘El Matador’ to prove himself at lightweight first. But does Topuria really need to prove himself? Last year, the Spanish-Georgian beat the two greatest featherweights in history. And one of those guys, Max Holloway, has proven himself at 155.
But MMA math doesn’t work like that, especially if Topuria is a bit undersized for 155, as Brown and Poirier suspect. Moreover, Makhachev has already beaten Alexander Volkanovski, the previous featherweight champ, who was also the pound-for-pound #1 fighter at the time. So Brown completely understands why Makhachev doesn’t want to fight Topuria right away, even if he sees why Topuria deserves an immediate title shot.
“It’s more from Islam’s side it doesn’t make sense. For Ilia, he beat Max [Holloway] and [Volkanovski]. He kind of earned his way to any title shot but for Islam, it makes no sense. I get both sides and Islam’s the champ so you should have to get a fight to go fight him,” Brown added.
What do you think about Matt Brown’s take on the Ilia Topuria’s penchant for wine? Do you also think Islam Makhachev is justified in not wanting to fight ‘El Matador’? Let us know your thoughts in the comments down below.
The post “He Likes to Drink Wine” – Ilia Topuria’s Ugly Weight Cutting Issues Exposed Amid Islam Makhachev Title Shot Demands appeared first on EssentiallySports.