Merab Dvalishvili has looked nearly unbeatable throughout his tenure as UFC bantamweight champion.
This weekend, he’ll collide with Cory Sandhagen in an attempt to defend his title for the third time.
Ahead of their co-main event bout, Dvalishvili spoke with former flyweight kingpin Demetrious Johnson about his training methods and his process for cutting weight.
As he revealed, instead of hiring a nutritionist to help him slowly cut weight while staying nourished, the champ fasts for 48 hours ahead of weigh-ins like fighters from the UFC’s early days:
“I cut weight the old-school way. Back when I did judo, I wouldn’t eat or drink, just starve. Now I only do that for two days. From Tuesday night, I don’t eat or drink water.
“All of Wednesday, no food, no water. And I train, I need to sweat. I don’t go to the sauna, I don’t take hot baths. I just run to sweat. It’s hard, but… When I’m running on the treadmill on Wednesday or Thursday, I want to cry, but I smile.”
Considering he weighs in on Friday, the champ is likely actively fasting for his weight cut right now.
Dvalishvili Dishes on Sleep Habits
Although we’ve heard of athletes like Leon Edwards hiring a sleep specialist for his title defense against Belal Muhammad, or LeBron James spending a rumored $1 million per year on his body, Dvalishvili has a different approach.
While many fighters use custom mouth guards that track things like heart rate and punches absorbed during training, Merab Dvalishvili likes to keep things old school.
Additionally, in another stunning revelation, the champ doesn’t put too much of an emphasis on his sleep schedule:
“They gave me the same one (mouth guard), but I don’t use it. Because I don’t track any of that, I just sleep whenever I feel like it. My goal is to sleep 8 hours, but of course the phone and stuff get in the way, so sometimes it’s 6. But okay, slept 6, woke up. I don’t even check my weight. I might check it once a month.
“When I feel light, I’m happy. I don’t want the extra stress of looking at the scale, because then it means I should skip a meal.”
To date, the champ has never missed weight throughout his professional career despite not keeping track of his weight on a day-to-day basis.
Merab Dvalishvili Opens Up on Training Habits
In the early days of the UFC, fighters like Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz spent a considerable amount of their training camps sparring.
Now, with new information pointing to the long-term effects of repeated head trauma, many fighters do far less sparring than years past.
According to Dvalishvili, however, he doesn’t put much of a focus on positional drilling, instead prioritizing live work:
“I like positions that are close to real fighting. I haven’t been drilling much the last two years. Because when I drill, I don’t like myself, I don’t look technical. But in sparring I look… it’s closer to reality. And many drills the coach gives don’t fit me. That’s why I haven’t done them the last two years. If I do drills, I do them my way, tailored for myself.”
Considering how dominant he’s looked over the past few years, don’t expect anything to change in the Dvalishvili camp.
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