Sam Calavitta Details T.J. Dillashaw’s “Intricate, Calculated” UFC on ESPN+ 1 Weight Cut

Performance specialist Sam Calavitta spoke with MMAjunkie about working with T.J. Dillashaw ahead of Dillashaw’s fight with Henry Cejudo at UFC on ESPN+ 1. Highlights are below:

On the trickiness of Dillashaw’s weight cut: “This here is probably, in combat sports, the most intricately executed and calculated-out weight cut in the history of it. This process is not something that’s done overnight. Weight cutting in the industry has been bastardized to salt baths and sauna and starvation and dehydration for 24 hours to 48 hours, and it’s killing folks. There’s no calculations, there’s no metabolic process, there’s no high-grade equipment. I understood if this process was going to happen, we needed to have a certain calculated number of time to do it properly.”

On suggesting to Dillashaw that he try to take on Demetrious Johnson: “Everyone in the industry is looking for a single variable, but I’m a mathematician by trade. I account for all variables and I looked at all the variables that I can control in a weight drop. The numbers don’t lie. I’m actually the one who looked at the numbers and told T.J. that I believe it’s feasible to be able to bring him in not just on weight, but stronger, faster and better without ever having missed a meal or a drink. I believed we could do it so I said we should go ahead and challenge (Johnson).”