UFC media events are always something of a wild spectacle, because in direct contrast to the often buttoned-down responses you get from, say, NBA players, these fighters are known for speaking their minds in expressive, colorful, and frequently bleepable ways.
Ahead of Saturday’s UFC 291 event at the Delta Center, which will be the company’s second pay-per-view in Salt Lake City in less than 12 months, 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.
Getting real about cutting weight
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.
Fighters who are naturally bigger lose about 15 to 20 pounds from their walk-around weight in a roughly five- to seven-day span before the fight, by reducing water intake and avoiding carbs and salts. They get at or below the limit on weigh-in day, then rapidly rehydrate to regain natural mass, thus giving them a theoretical competitive advantage over smaller-framed opponents.
The potential downside is suffering dehydration, which causes lethargy, and — longer-term — organ damage. Two fighters on Wednesday discussed the problems they’ve encountered cutting weight in the past.
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.
“The last fight, I actually passed out just before weigh-ins. I blacked out and my coaches had to carry me,” Lewis said. “… I waited until three days before weigh-ins and then started trying to cut weight — I cut like 25 pounds in three days just not eating and drinking water.”
Lewis, who acknowledged having lifelong issues with eating and his weight, noted that the incident was “a big eye-opener” because it was “a scary moment” and he felt like “I was going to die.” The incident prompted him to get more serious about his eating and training habits, though he conceded, “It was hard to stop eating all the stuff I was eating.”
It paid off, though.
“I’m already at weight right now. I don’t have to cut anything,” Lewis said, before cracking a joke. “… I actually stuck to my diet for one day, and I feel good. … Y’all for sure will see a six-pack on me this weekend.”
“Which brand?” replied one reporter.
Meanwhile, Michael Chiesa began his pre-UFC career in the welterweight division (170 pounds), then after joining the company, he spent 2011-2018 at lightweight (155 pounds), before eventually moving back to welterweight. Asked how he was able to stay at lightweight so long, he was blunt.
“Stupidity,” he said simply, before giving a more nuanced answer.
(Kyusung Gong | AP file photo) Michael Chiesa, right, spent seven years fighting in a weight class he didn't belong in and where weight cuts were becoming increasingly difficult, before a loss enabled him to move up to welterweight.
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.
“What do you do, call up [matchmaker] Joe Silva and say, ‘Hey, I know I just beat Jim Miller, but I gotta move up a weight class,’” Chiesa said. “… You’ve just got to kind of gut it out until things don’t go your way.”
One fight he was training for saw him cut weight from 183 pounds down to 155: “It was a getting dragged back through the hotel type of situation.”
He called his July 7, 2018 bout against Anthony Pettis (where Chiesa missed weight, forfeited 30% of his fight purse, then lost by second-round submission), “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.
“You couldn’t pay me enough to try to make lightweight now,” he concluded.
Tony Ferguson, unhinged
“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. His career has taken a severe downturn of late, though, with five consecutive losses (against Justin Gaethje, Charles Oliveira, Beneil Dariush, Michael Chandler, and Nate Diaz), plus a May arrest on suspicion of DUI when he flipped his truck after crashing into two parked cars (he has pleaded not guilty).
Ferguson appeared to be in a good mood when he entered the hotel ballroom Wednesday, wearing sunglasses, and flipping his chair around on stage so he could lean his chest up against the seat backing. Then came a question about the DUI charge and whether he was OK. And he proceeded to go off.
“I’m gonna be real with you, there was a whole bunch of slander and a whole bunch of s---. … You guys really wanna get into it? I’ve always taken heat from the media. I’ve always taken heat from the media,” Ferguson said. “You wanna laugh about it? You guys weren’t there. I was there. So I know what the f--- is going on. … If you don’t like to hear what the f--- I have to say, f--- you.”
Solid start.
(Eric Walden | The Salt Lake Tribune) Tony Ferguson made a memorable appearance at the media day event ahead of UFC 291 in Salt Lake City.
The next few minutes of his session devolved into stream-of-consciousness reflections, including:
• Scouting and tracking a bear that was hanging around his camp in California (at one point, he pulled out a knife and dropped it on the table, to show what he was armed with as he pursued the bear).
• Extolling the virtues of topography maps and water tables.
• Putting himself in a cabin without air conditioning because, “I needed to get back to Rocky style, I f---ing needed to get that grunge in again.”
• 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.
• A convoluted story about opponent Bobby Green apparently insulting him by interrupting his Father’s Day with a text that said, of all things, “Happy Father’s Day.” He followed by claiming Green is scared of him: “I’m not gonna call him a b----a--, but I just saw him in the lobby not too long ago … and when he saw me, he looked like he’d seen the fourth horseman [of the apocalypse], Death.”
• Claiming that his five-loss streak is inevitably only a hiccup, because since competing in sports from the age of 4, he has only lost perhaps 20 or 25 times at anything in his entire life.
By the time he wrapped his nearly 16-minute session, he appeared to be in a much better mood, and he hopped down from the dais and gave fist-bumps to a couple reporters.
Stephen Thompson’s southern charm
(John Locher | AP file photo) Stephen Thompson will be the oldest fighter on the card at UFC 291 in Salt Lake City on July 29, 2023. The 40-year-old will be participating in his 20th UFC fight.
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.
They were quickly proven correct when the opening question about Thompson reaching a milestone 20th fight in the UFC was met with the light-hearted ad southern-accented response, “Shut your butt!”
After reflecting on his longer-than-expected career (noting he’s been around so long that MC Hammer once walked him out to the ring), he then jokingly turned to lamenting his age, suggesting hopefully-but-falsely: “I’m not the oldest one on the card, I don’t think!”
He is by 13 days, as he was born on Feb. 11, 1983, while light heavyweight contender Jan Blachowitz was born Feb. 24, 1983.
“Son of a …” he said in mock exasperation when that fact was brought to his attention.
Utah ties
Before he joined the UFC and was competing in Strikeforce, Green (the aforementioned Ferguson opponent) trained in the state with local legend Jeremy Horn, who fought out of Salt Lake City and still runs a gym in Sandy.
“This is symbolic to me, Salt Lake means the world to me,” said Green. “Jeremy gave me so much, and so he’ll be at the fights, so I can honor him and give back and thank him, like, ‘Hey, thanks for taking care of this little Black kid.’ He taught me so many different things that I don’t forget to this day.”
And Chiesa grew up in and lives in Spokane Valley, Wash., not too far from the residence of a certain former Utah Jazz point guard. As a result, he came to Thursday’s news conference decked out in a certain white jersey with purple accents and the No. 12 on it.
“John Stockton used to buy antiques from my grandma. He was a very private guy, so when my grandma’s antique shop would close [for the day], he would come and buy from her,” Chiesa said. “So, it’s one of those things where you feel like certain cities and fights that give you a type of feeling that things are gonna go well for you — fighting in Salt Lake City, the place where one of Spokane’s finest athletes had a ton of success — it makes me feel good, it gives me a lot of confidence.”
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