As UFC fighters interacted with reporters and fans ahead of Saturday’s UFC 291 pay-per-view at the Delta Center, they weighed in topics as diverse as on weight cutting, a DUI arrest, MMA longevity, and John Stockton.
, the promotion held a closed-to-the-public Media Day session Wednesday at the Salt Lake City Center Hilton, and and open-to-the-public official press conference at Thursday at the Salt Palace. Here are some of the most noteworthy moments.The practice of “cutting weight” is a common but controversial one in combat sports. Basically, it entails dropping your walk-around weight for a few days to get paired against a fighter in a lower-weight division than your natural weight.
Derrick Lewis fights at heavyweight, which means he has to be no more than 265 pounds on weigh-in day. “The Black Beast” comes into Saturday on a three-fight losing streak, and acknowledged that, “The last few fights, I haven’t been healthy.” Some reporters took this to mean Lewis had been ill or injured. However, he clarified he was talking about health from a more holistic perspective, particularly his weight and his weight-cutting attempts.
He won the UFC’s “Ultimate Fighter” competition — which comes with a guaranteed contract — at 155 pounds, and then started stringing together wins over respected and ranked competitors in the division, putting him in the difficult position of knowing he was in the wrong weight class, but also knowing the UFC wouldn’t be keen to suddenly change that.
He called his July 7, 2018 bout against Anthony Pettis , “The best thing that ever happened to me,” because it gave him the ammunition he needed to convince the UFC to let him change divisions and compete at 170 pounds.“El Cucuy” is a UFC legend, at one point considered one of the best fighters in the world, and seemingly always on the verge of capturing a title, only for injuries to get in the way.
• Conceding that “the last couple fights, I haven’t really been [into] it,” noting that he was eating slushies the week of one fight, and that Diaz “was hard to take serious” because of his contract standoff issues with the company. When it was announced that “Wonderboy” would be following Ferguson in the interview lineup, it was noted by several longtime MMA reporters that the vibe was about to shift 180 degrees, given the South Carolina native’s easygoing and affable demeanor.
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