Michael Chiesa Talks About His Scary Experience With A Weight Cut

In an interview with MMA Fighting, Michael Chiesa spoke about his weight cut before UFC 226, which left him afraid he would die. Here are highlights:

On his weight cut issues and Max Holloway having to pull out of a fight: “I know Max’s issue wasn’t a weight issue. But for some reason I just kept thinking about that. I don’t know. There was a lot of things going on in my head. I couldn’t feel my arms. I was hyperventilating, my back was cramping up. My blood pressure was dropping. I could hardly walk back to my hotel room. I knew I had to get up the next day and cut more weight.”

On how bad the weight cut was: “It was just scary. It’s never been like that. In the middle of the night, I had like a huge panic attack. I couldn’t stop my body from moving. I felt like I was having a seizure, but it wasn’t a seizure. My body was like trembling, my back was cramping, I was having like a panic attack. My girlfriend was with me and was just like, ‘What the f*ck do I do?’ I literally told her, ‘I’m afraid tomorrow I’m gonna die doing this. I’ve never felt like this.’ It’s always bad. Cutting weight is always rough, especially for guys like myself that make a significant cut to make a number. I’ve never felt like that. I’ve never been in fear of my life.”

On his nutrition coaches George Lockhart and Daniel Leith: “Lockhart and Leith are f*cking awesome. Those guys are great at what they do. They knew my situation, they knew it was a tricky one. We made due with what we had. I gave them maximum effort, they gave me maximum effort. It was just tough, dude. Usually, for me, making weight takes a couple of hours.”