Worth the weight: Anthony Johnson on ‘FIGHT! An MMA Podcast’

There’s a difference between a fighter who’s hungry and one who’s starving.

Anthony Johnson knows that better than most.

Five years ago, Johnson was starving himself to fight at 170 pounds, sometimes losing more than 50 pounds in order to make weight. Yeah. That’s not a typo. He’d lose 50 freaking pounds in the midst of hearing tons of jokes about how much he was hating carbs and – presumably – life.

Now at 205, he’s simply hungry, and you could hear the difference in his voice on Thursday as he prepared to fight Glover Teixeira on Saturday at UFC 202. Bob Stelton and I interviewed him for the fifth episode of “FIGHT! An MMA Podcast,” which available on iTunes.

“Everything is awesome,” Johnson said. “No complaints.”

Johnson has always been an exceptionally exciting fighter, and I particularly enjoyed the build-up to his UFC Fight Night bout in Seattle against British striker Dan Hardy. This was still when Johnson was fighting at 170 pounds, and Hardy kept making fat jokes about him.

Losing weight is a part of fighting. More specifically, it’s usually the worst part. There’s even a term for it: cutting weight. That refers to losing weight in the days leading up to the fight in order to make the weight limit for the bout, and then gaining as much weight as possible between the weigh-in – which is the day before the fight – and the bout itself.

The rationale is simple. A bigger fighter will presumably have an edge in everything from power to the ability to lean on his opponent, wearing him down. The best way to be the bigger fighter is to lose as much weight in the lead-up to the weigh-in and then regain as much as possible in the 24 hours prior to the fight.

Functionally, fighters accomplish that by treating their bodies as a sponge and sweating out every bit of water they can. They take Epsom-salt baths. They exercise in rubber suits. They sit in saunas. They exercise in rubber suits while in saunas with the arm and leg cuffs of their rubber suit duct-taped to prevent any circulation.

The goal is to make the weight limit for the fight in time for the weigh-in, and then go about the process of gaining back as much weight as possible. It’s why you’ll see fighters begin hydrating as soon as they step off the scale, often with Pedialyte. I’ve personally watched a fighter make weight for a 185-pound bout, his face drawn and skeletal, and then gain 13 pounds before going to bed that night.

But even in a sport where cutting weight is standard, Johnson was extreme. This is a guy whose regular weight was often up at 220 pounds yet he fought at 170. That advantage in power was evident back in that bout in Seattle. Johnson was so much stronger than Hardy that he wrestled the Brit to the ground and manhandled him there.

Two fights later, Johnson was out of the UFC promotion, having failed to make weight for a bout against Vitor Belfort that was scheduled for 185 pounds.

Johnson hasn’t reinvented himself since then so much as he’s found the right weight class. He still cuts weight for the fight. It’s just much more manageable. Wait. That’s not quite right. It’s much more manageable compared to what he used to do.

“I’m 10 pounds overweight right now,” he said. “Easy. I’ll lose five to six tonight, and in the morning I’ll lose another four or five, know what I mean?”

No, Anthony. People who regularly fail to lose 10 pounds in a full month probably don’t know what you mean. Then again, fighters are a long way from being regular people as you’ll see when Johnson fights Teixeira on Saturday in Las Vegas.

Danny O’Neil and Bob Stelton host a new episode of “FIGHT!” each Thursday. Subscribe on iTunes today. You can find the fifth episode here.

Follow @dannyoneil