MMA: he loses 8 kilos in 24 hours to be able to fight in Paris

2023-09-29 12:35:48

All MMA fighters will tell you: cutting is a fight before the fight. Cutting is a weight loss, more or less significant, that athletes try to achieve in the hours preceding the weigh-in to be at the weight indicated on the contract. The objective: to dehydrate enormously to lose a lot of water, before regaining this mass between the moment of weighing and the fight, i.e. 36 hours, in order to be heavier than your opponent in the cage.

In this dangerous game, some are more ambitious than others. Jordan Zébo, who will fight this Saturday at the Zénith in Paris against Cédric Doumbé as part of the first evening of the PFL in France, is one of these “big cutters”, those who lose many kilos. Thursday noon, during the press conference, the Frenchman indicated to the YouTube channel “Ilies Mkt” weigh nearly 86 kg. Except this Friday morning, at around 9:45 a.m., the resident of the MMA Factory stepped on the scale at the regulatory weight of 77.5 kg, a loss of 8.5 kg in less than 24 hours.

This figure, although very high, is not surprising. Jordan Zébo also confirmed that it was not a big weight loss for him. “For this fight, I’m really ahead, even if I cut a lot,” he said. Other fighters do not hesitate to become even more dehydrated. Alex Pereira, 105kg in everyday life, for example fought for a long time in the under 84kg category.

“It’s clearly torture”

But how can you lose so much weight in such a short time? “First, there is intracellular weight loss, during which we remove sugar and salt to have less water retention,” Brian Bouland, MMA fighter and trainer, trained on this delicate question of cutting. Then it’s the extracellular loss with saunas, hot baths, running with a sweat suit…” This last phase only lasts a few hours, between 7 p.m. on Thursday and 9 a.m. on Friday for the weigh-in. The fighter then has a little over 36 hours to regain as much weight as possible and gain physical advantage over his opponent in the cage.

For everyone, this moment is real suffering. “It’s clearly torture,” confirms Nora Cornolle, under contract with the UFC. We put ourselves in survival mode, we struggle to lose the last few hundred grams because we already don’t have a lot of water in our body. I’ve already looked at myself in the mirror and said to myself: where am I going to lose this weight? Maybe I’ll cry, it’ll make me lose a little. » This passage is nevertheless obligatory, and was brilliantly succeeded by Jordan Zébo.