This Saturday UFC's Barclays Centre, Brooklyn card sees bantamweight champion T.J. Dillashaw take on flyweight star Henry Cejudo.
Sam Calavitta, the Performance Specialist at The Training Lab in California, is overseeing the Dillashaw's cut down to flyweight and has described it as "the most intricately executed and calculated-out weight cut in the history of it," when speaking to MMAJunkie.
Dillashaw is looking to become just the fourth fighter in UFC history to simultaneously hold two belts at the same time.
The drastic weight-cut has been the centre of plenty of debate in recent weeks. Cejudo Cejudo told the MMA Hour that his opponent is in poor shape for the contest: "He’s not looking so well. It looks like he needs a cup of water. He looks like a cross country runner."
The press conference took place yesterday and Dillashaw wore big sunglasses throughout.
TJ Dillashaw says he got down to 128 pounds already this morning.
Side note — TJ needs to get some flyweight sunglasses cause those look a little big on him right now 🤣🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/ATvZuUH4Tw— Damon Martin (@DamonMartin) January 17, 2019
Now, as the weigh-in quickly approaches, photos have emerged of a lean and quite gaunt Dillashaw.
It’s nearly 1am in New York. TJ Dillashaw and his team just wrapped a weight cutting session at 24-hour fitness. He will only now eat his dinner for the night and drink some water. Everyone is very positive on where he’s at ahead of tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/PwbhWTCCt5
— Brett Okamoto (@bokamotoESPN) January 18, 2019
It's an aspect of the sport Irish UFC star Conor McGregor recently cited as an issue. In a Mac Life interview last November, McGregor claimed there is a need for more divisions.
We should be on top of the weight cut game. There should be many more weights to choose from. 155 to 170 is a 15 pound gap, like even ten pounds is... boxing's what, Every three pounds or something there's a fucking new division.
There's definitely space for more divisions and something needs to be done where we can keep an eye on the way people are cutting weight and manage it and make the sport more enjoyable for the athletes actually competing.
