In the days ahead of the fight, I get artificially heavy. A week out, I'll start eating a bunch of salt and drinking two gallons of water a day. When you water load, you put as much water in your body as possible, and get super hydrated. Your body gets used to putting out so much water, that even after you cut the salt, your body keeps flushing the water out for a few more days. I bloat up from the water. My weight is usually 146 when I leave in the morning. By the time I get to Vegas, I'm usually 5 lbs heavier, because I'm so full of water. As we drive, I'm drinking constantly. At every exit, I'm like, "I gotta pee. I gotta pee. I gotta pee"
When we get to Vegas, the first stop is the UFC offices. I check in with them, usually sign some posters or something. Dolce meets me and checks my weight. From there, I check into the hotel. Dolce has me eat. I chill for a bit. I'll do one workout in the evening just to sweat and lose some weight, then eat whatever Dolce tells me to eat. then go to bed.
Fight week Wednesday, I have a lot of media. It's when they do all the little media snippets. We film the pre fight interviews that people see coming up on the big screen before we walk out. It's my least favorite interview to do ever, because they try to feed you things to say and it pisses me off.
After that, I do a photoshoot where they take pictures of me holding the belt for posters for the next fight. It's taken assuming that I'm going to win, which I always do. This way, when the next fight comes up, they already have the promotional pictures.
Wednesday is the last day I really get to eat meals. Dolce drops off a cooler of food for me with salad, chia bowls, vegetable stir fry, maybe an egg omelet, fruit and little trail mix snacks. It has all my waters and everything I could possibly need to eat that day.
Thursday is press conference day. In addition to the press conference, that's when I do individual interviews for a few hours. After that's done, I'm pretty much left alone as far as obligations until the next day's weigh in. The media circus is over, my focus shifts to making weight.
I'll go train again, just to get a sweat on. This is when I really start my weight cut. In the days ahead of a fight, my weight generally looks like this: Tuesday, I'm 151. By Wednesday, I'm already 148. Thursday, before I even start the cut, I'm usually around 146. Then I'll start taking the baths to lose water and usually get down from 146 to 138.
Thursday morning, I stop chugging water and start sipping it. By afternoon, I really start cutting water. One mistake many people make is that they cut the water way too soon. They'll be cutting water out all week. I only cut water for the last 24 hours. Thursday evening, I'll check my weight, train, check it again, and then take a couple of baths to work up a sweat before bed. Thursday nights, I am hungry and dehydrated and I don't sleep that well.
Then I'll wake up between 138 and 137 on Friday morning, take a couple more baths to lose the last two pounds before weigh in and hit 135. I no longer feel the stress I used to feel when I was cutting weight for judo.