UrbanUpdate

For years, Demetrious Johnson has been in the conversation as the UFC’s top pound-for-pound fighter. In fact, the company itself has bestowed that honor upon Johnson in their very own rankings. He’s successfully defended his flyweight championship a record-tying 10 times and hasn’t lost a fight since 2011. So you might be shocked to learn that, according to Johnson, the UFC has contemplated shuttering the 125-pound weight class (“They’re trying to burn my division down,” Johnson said somewhat arbitrarily at the end of our conversation, three days before publicly airing out a slew of grievances towards Dana White and the UFC in response to a potential fight with bantamweight T.J. Dillashaw). But before any of that came to light, we caught up with “Mighty Mouse” to try to learn the key to staying on top as champ for so long in a sport where no champion is ever safe.

GQ: About a month ago on your Instagram, you posted a photo of a shot glass with some green substance in it. Was that some sort of magic elixir?

Demetrious Johnson: We were juicing some wheat grass, actually.

Is that something new for you, or have you always been into that?

Yeah, we’ve always been into juicing. It’s one of the things that my wife likes to do. She’s a vegetarian, so she loves to juice. And I’m a big health freak—well, when I feel like being it. We’ll also juice ginger. I like to make my ginger, lemon, and cayenne pepper shot. That’s kinda like my coffee shot in the morning. We were doing it pretty consistently, but we’ve been so busy travelling for the last two and a half weeks. I brought some ginger shots to Disneyland, but then I was in Dallas, New York, and Vegas. Once we get back home I think we’ll start back up with juicing consistently, though.

Will you do that even when you’re in camp or when you’re dropping weight for a fight?

I don’t do it to help make weight. I’m a small guy, as it is. For me, I don’t need to juice to make weight for my fights. I just do it for the health benefits—to keep my body healthy and to get my greens in me.

Cutting weight is one of the things that has always fascinated me. How close to 125 pounds do you usually stay?

It all depends. You know, last night I had two beers and four slices of pizza and five apple empanadas and I woke up at 143 pounds. I can eat whatever I want and I don’t get over 145 pounds. A lot of the guys who fight at 125 pounds, they get pretty big and when it gets closer to the fight, they’re walking around at 135 pounds. For me, I try to stay the same weight I typically walk around at. I’ll show up to a fight week on a Tuesday weighing 138, 140 pounds. I only have to weigh 125 pounds for like, one second. So when I jump on the scale and they yell, “125!” Then I can blow back up. Come fight night I’ll weigh 140 pounds. That’s how I run my style. Like I said, a lot of people blow up to 150 or even 160 pounds, then they have a hard time cutting more weight. But I stay at a pretty consistent weight, so when I make that 15 pound cut, it’s not such a drastic change where my body is like, “What’s going on?” I just gotta shed 15 pounds of water and then I’ll put it back on, don’t you worry.

I know everyone has their own methods for cutting weight, and what works for one person might not work as well for another, but I have to admit that your method seems like one of the smarter ones, especially with how quickly a fight can pop up in the UFC sometimes.

Yeah, I was at the UFC retreat and Aljamain Sterling was like, “Yeah, I’m at 165, 166 pounds right now.” I was like, “You weigh almost as heavy as a welterweight walking around!” Me? I’m 5’3”, eating whatever I want, drinking beer, having pizza. Stuffed-crust pizza! Not that dry-ass crust! Stuffed-crust, and I’m waking up at 140 pounds.

When it comes to a camp, I’m assuming your diet gets you away from the stuffed-crust pizzas?

You know, I do have my cheat meals. I have Oreos inside the house right now and I have beer and fried chicken and waffles. All that good stuff. But once it comes down to when I really want to get in shape and get lean, I’ll eat clean and go with whole foods. In the morning I’ll have some type of toast. Ezekiel bread, so it’s all whole grain. Then for the rest of the day I won’t have any sweets, no beer, nothing bad for me. My wife will come home and cook my meals during training camp. She’ll be like, “What do you want for dinner?” and I’ll say, “Chicken and greens.” It’s that simple. She just throws some chicken in the oven and steams some broccoli or spinach or asparagus. It’s super easy. Then I’ll have some type of good carb, like a sweet potato or brown rice.

I know you’re a big beer guy. I saw you drinking some beer on Instagram that is way too adventurous for me.

Yeah, a coconut and chocolate stout. It was delicious! That’s one thing, I just love beer. And I like dark beers. I’ll drink chocolate stouts, porters, stuff like that. But beer is just wasted calories. When I cut alcohol for eight weeks before a fight, I’ll lose maybe two to three pounds… Man, I’m contemplating right now if I want to have a beer just as we speak about it! But I’m like, “Fuck, it’s three o’clock in the afternoon and the kids are still up.” What do you do? Decisions, decisions.

Post-fight, is that something you look forward to the most? Having a celebratory beer?

I used to be like that. At one point we would do Irish Car Bomb shots, me and the coaches. That was when I was fighting at 135 pounds in like, 2011. But now when I go through these long periods of time without any alcohol, to introduce it back into my system sort of messes me up. So I have to take it slowly. After a fight I let my stomach rest and hold off on the beer. I’ll have burgers and fries, though.

Be honest, how hungry are you right after you make weight or right after a fight? Do you just have a meal waiting for you the second you get back to the locker room?

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You know, it’s funny that you mention that, because it’s not the starving part. It’s more the malnourishment. I’m eating meals, but I’m eating just salad and bland chicken. I’m not getting the carbs, I’m not getting the minerals or vitamins that I need during fight week. So that’s when people get to where they have seizures and their stomach lining dries up and they have lots of problems. So for me, it’s not about being starving. It’s all about the nutritional value of stuff. It’s not that you get to eat, it’s that you get to introduce stuff in your body that’s going to hang on and make you feel good, like carbs. Vitamins A, C, B—all that stuff. It all helps you hang on to weight and water.

Hydration is obviously a huge key for fighters. Anything special you do to help with hydration?

Literally all I drink outside of fight camp is beer and water. I stay away from pop—beer is healthier than pop. I’m not big on energy drinks or protein shakes. During camp, the biggest thing is to just drink as much water as possible. I try to get a gallon down a day when I’m lifting weights. When it comes to fight time, two weeks before the fight I’ll drink two gallons of water a day, which will give me about 15 pounds. Now, that’s a lot of water, so you’re going to be peeing a lot.

After you make weight, a lot of people don’t know what to digest. Doctors have told me that Pedialyte is the best thing. It has the perfect combination of zinc, vitamins, iron, carbohydrates. It’s the perfect drink for your body to digest.

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