McGregor nutritionist wants speed over power
Lockhart, who is working for McGregor in preparation for his fight with Mayweather, says nutritional tweaks are necessary going from one sport to the other, with the prominent change being a reduction in walking around weight.
With an MMA match, wrestling, (jiu-jitsu and) having someone on top of you, weight matters – with wrestling it does have a huge effect. With boxing, I believe speed is key. If I’m bigger than you but can’t hit you, it doesn’t make a whole lot of difference. Not as much grappling, the referee pulls you apart as soon as that does happen. I want to make sure the fighter is lower in weight, the cut is not as big and the reload is not as much…For an MMA fighter to reload, they’ll gain 15, 18 pounds, which gives them that advantage (on fight night). [For] boxing, I want him actually walking in close to weight the week of the fight. Walking in, weighing in and maybe gaining a couple pounds after that.
Team SBG video
The Mac Life releases a video of McGregor and the rest of SBG undergoing a grappling class with Coach Kavanagh, while nutritionist Lockhart details both his time in Ireland, and managing McGregor’s weight leading up to UFC 205. Lockhart:
I’ve got enough food to feed a small army…or Conor McGregor.
‘McGregor is one of the best guys I’ve worked with’
Lockhart, McGregor’s nutritionist, says that McGregor always follwo his nurtitional advice.
I learned a lot from working with Conor the first time. I gave him a list of foods to eat, and his coach was like, “It would be great if he could eat all of this, but we don’t see how that’s possible!” It was so late in the game, I told them to do what they wanted to do and I would work around that. A few hours later coach Kavanagh calls me back and says, ‘No, we made the decision, we’re going to follow you 100%.’ They did that, everything went great and we’ve had a great relationship ever since. Conor is seriously one of the best guys I’ve ever worked with. I love the guy to death, he’s just an amazing guy all-around. What’s crazy is a lot of times I will go out to a fighter’s camp and they’ll tell me they’re following the program, then I look in the refrigerator and the cabinets, and there’s literally nothing on the program in there. When I went out to Conor’s everything was there. I’ll ask Conor if he done something I asked, and he’ll look at me like ‘Yeah, you said to do it!’ It’s hard to get used to [someone being so disciplined]. One thing I love about him is every time it’s time for him to eat, he asks exactly what he should eat. Conor is very particular about his coaches, and this is why he does so well. He lets me do my job, which makes my job crazy easy. I love working with him.
UFC 202: Embedded Vlog -Episode 6
UFC releases the final episode of UFC 202: Embedded, following Diaz, Cerrone, Johnson in the leadup to the UFC 202 official and ceremonial weigh-ins. Diaz:
I’ve been fighting my whole life. I’ve been dealing with mother f-ckers acting up. We’re fighting Saturday. See what happens.
Lockhart talks about McGregor’s nutrition.
We’ve been prepping his body to hold more carbs. So his muscles will be full without any spillage.
Nutritionist interview
Lockhart, McGregor’s nutritionist, talks about preparation for UFC 202.
I head out there this week to make sure he’s taken care of, feeling good and that his performance is top-notch. When you don’t have to worry about that (weight cut), it’s super simple. We can give his as much energy and food as he needs based on the requirements of the performance. Obviously, we’re not really cutting this fight, so it’s all about performance, which is fun. It makes my job fun. This time, we’re going to take a look at everything and make sure it’s on point and he’s giving the body what it needs…There are so many things that can hinder your performance. For instance, if someone eats too close to a fight, what happens is that the body is sending blood to my stomach and is literally trying to do two things at once. It’s trying to digest food and it’s also trying to give you the oxygenate the blood need to perform in the actual fights…The thing about Conor is that he stays lean all the time and is very disciplined. And the leaner you are, the easier the weight cut is going to be, because muscle holds a lot of water.