🎙️ What REALLY Happens During UFC Fight Week [Tuesday-Saturday]

[0:00]It's a long fight week. It's only a few days but it feels like an eternity. So you normally get there on Tuesday, normally fly in on Tuesday of fight week.

[0:10]You get off the plane, you get to the hotel and right off the bat you're doing media. So you're doing, you're doing social media stuff.

[0:17]You've got like little quick hits that you've got to do, you've got to sign posters, you've got to resign your contract, you've got to sign waivers. You've got to get all your, um, meals and diet plans stuff done. So you meet with the nutritionists to grab your food.

[0:32]To go over like check your weight. Where's your weight now? What do you plan on doing throughout the week? What do they advise you do based on where you are? So you're kind of like planning on the fly with that.

[0:41]Um, again, yeah, you're signing the posters. You're getting your, usually you're getting your fight week kit. So your UFC bag with all your clothes, you're trying all that stuff on, make sure everything fits.

[0:54]Then you go and try on your fight gear. So what are the shorts that you're wearing? Do they fit? Do they have the right size? Do they have the right style of short?

[1:03]I always wear the valy Tudo compression shorts, but some guys wear kind of more like the Thai shorts or the long board shorts.

[1:10]So you're trying those on, making sure they fit before they screen print your name on them. You're doing the same thing with the gloves. So you try the gloves on and make sure that they're the fit that you want, especially with the two new styles of gloves now.

[1:21]So we've got the old school regular black leather gloves and then we've got the new school kind of gray, more sleek gloves and they fit differently. So you you've don't always wear the same size. Like I wear, uh, I think I wear a large in the old gloves and an extra large in the new gloves. They just fit a little bit different and, uh, the new ones are a little bit tighter.

[1:42]So you're trying all that stuff on and then sometimes you have more media to do that day. Get your hotel room, you're trying to get some food down.

[1:50]You know, after all that traveling, you're checking your weight, making sure you're, you're where you want to be. And then you've got to work out Tuesday evening and and get kind of one decent good sweat in, you know, especially after the plane ride, you want to get that that sweat out.

[2:05]So Tuesday's a really long day. You wake up Wednesday, you do it all over again. Wednesday's another super long day, especially when you're on a big card like this International Fight Week.

[2:13]It kind of feels like International Fight Week whenever we're back in Canada because it's they only come to Canada once or twice a year and for like five years, they hadn't been to Canada. So it's always a major event whenever they come back to Canada. So Wednesday's wild.

[2:28]I'm jam-packed all day with media. Usually your stuff's at one, you know, all your media stuff's at your hotel sometimes it's not and you've got to get shipped around through the city. Like last time in Montreal, we got shipped around to, uh, another hotel to do some of our media.

[2:43]But you're doing, you know, you're doing those like again, social media hits, those quick things that you see on the UFC Instagram where it's like, we're analyzing hockey fights or something like that and like, okay, react to this or what do you think about this?

[2:57]And then they normally try and do something especially on big cards like something related to the city or for us it was, you know, hockey. We got to see the, um, the Stanley Cup and we got like presented with the Montreal Canadians jerseys and, uh,

[3:11]You know, before you do all that stuff, you got to go to, you know, you got to go to makeup, got to get touched up before you're on camera, right? So you're not shining, I guess on on camera, but there's a lot of little stuff like Wednesday, Tuesday and Wednesday are frantically paced days.

[3:25]Like it doesn't feel like you get to sit still. And if you are sitting still, it's like in a waiting room to go do more media stuff. So you're doing stuff all day long. I don't think people realize that. I think people think it's like, oh, you're just like there hanging out and then you just happened to have some media posts or media clips presented somehow.

[3:40]Oh man, somehow they did some stuff for for Fight Week and that was also done it's like, no, we're doing that stuff all day long, man. Tons of interviews and then, uh, yeah, then you gotta do stuff for Sportsnet or ESPN or, you know, these international, international, uh, TV stations like Australia was there last time because Jack Deland Elena fought for the belt and then we were in Montreal.

[4:09]So we did interviews with TVA, the French, um, TV channel. So it's, yeah, you're constantly doing stuff and then there's the media scrum, which is just get up, grab the mic and I'm sitting here. All right, who's got the first question? And there's 10 reporters that are all asking, so how do you feel? It's like, how do you think I feel? I feel tired and I don't want to be doing this right now. I'd rather be in my hotel room chilling.

[4:31]But, uh, I'm gonna put on a face and tell you guys that I want to do this. This one's gonna be great. It's like, oh, do you feel incompetent? You said you're scared. It's like, hell yeah, we all are scared. This is crazy that we're doing this, but it's gonna happen. Everybody who says they're not is full of crap. But, uh, you know,

[4:50]But, uh, yeah, so those are always fun. And then, yeah, you gotta get another workout in Wednesday night and then Thursday, you're prepping your weight cut for big cards.

[5:00]There's the, you know, especially pay-per-views, there's the press conference. So, you know, you have, you normally on Thursday, you're meeting with the commentators. So the commentators are like, so what have you been doing differently for this camp? We're gonna say this stuff as you're walking out and say interesting stuff on the broadcast, you know, um,

[5:19]This might be an opportunity to say something on lines of like, I don't know, like both of these guys are single fathers who are going through custody battles with their children. Something, something very appropriate like that. I don't know.

[5:32]And, uh, you know, but, uh, yeah, so you'd be talking to the, the commentators on Thursday and then, you know, you eat and then you've got the, the press conference. Again, you thinking you, you, you've got to be in the waiting room like 20 minutes early, then you get on the shuttle. It's however long shuttle to the arena.

[5:50]You're sitting in the back of the arena for like an hour, get on stage, do your press conference. The press conference is what? You know, 20 minutes to 45 minutes, something like that.

[5:59]And then you go back, you're sitting in the back for a while while everybody leaves and then you get back on the shuttle, shuttle back to your hotel. So it's like, oh, man, these guys are doing like that quick press conference is cool. It's like, dude, that's half the day of just like sitting around waiting to do it and then you know your opponent's in the room beside you and just like these heightened stressful scenarios, right?

[6:15]Then you've got to get back to the hotel. All right, man. We've got to make weight tomorrow. We're either starting the weight cut process or we're just relaxing and saving it for the morning. Wake up in the morning, cut that weight, get on weight, weigh in, get your first sip and then like, hey, Mike, you want to do some media for these guys? Like, what better time to do media than when you're dehydrated and sleep deprived? Like perfect. Let's do this.

[6:37]Throw a headset on or just like trying to sip this. And they're like, so, how do you feel about the fight? I feel great. I want to kick this guy's ass. I don't know which way is up and I don't want to be here, but okay, cool. Like just talking trying to make some sort of, some sort of sense.

[6:52]And, uh, chugging, chugging fluids. All right, you're done there. Back up to the hotel room. Keep chugging, keep chugging, try to start eating something by the time you actually get a little bit of food in here. They're like, all right, it's time for you to head to the ceremonial weight. So that you look rehydrated before we present you to everybody.

[7:08]Now you're a little rehydrated. Again, got to get there early to the to the shuttle room. Then you get on the shuttle, takes however long to get to the venue. You get to the venue, sit in the back for a while. All right. We're all sitting in in the in the stands, basically, right? So where everyone's sitting, watching the ceremonial weight ends. We're on like the other side in the bleachers and it's just separated by like an aisle.

[7:29]So your opponent's right there and everybody's opponent's right there or right there. So everyone's just kind of awkwardly staring forward and just in this like, shit, man. The Octagon's right there and my opponent's right there and we still have to wait over 24 hours and everything's heightened and everyone, you can just feel the tension off everybody and people are trying to like play it differently, but you can tell everyone feels pretty tense.

[7:54]Then even more uncomfortably, you know, some of you might be doing media stuff before you head out. You got like kind of a media strip set up at the way in. So you might be doing media before or after you get on the scale. So now like, all right, everyone, we're calling you down, you and your opponent. So you just get in one long line to walk out for the ceremonial way ends. And you're standing in a single file line with one coach and then your opponent.

[8:15]So Blue Corner's in the front, facing forward. Red Corner's behind them. You're like three feet from your opponent just standing there for like 15 minutes awkwardly. They kind of like turn around and make eye contact with you and they kind of like look away and try and try to pretend like it's not super weird, but it usually is.

[8:34]Um, it's just such an odd, it's such an odd thing about fighting that like you don't get to see as as a fan. We're just like standing single file. The fact that there aren't more fights that pop off there is actually surprising. So the amount of guys you see like shove each other at weigh-ins and and they have to get separated and like, oh, keep these guys away from each other.

[8:53]And then they go and sit beside one another in the back. Like, why did you guys make that scene when you're just gonna sit here and talk to one another or not talk to one another, but just like sit eight feet apart from one another. Behind the curtain. Like, all right, you're really tough now. Like when you know it's like the dogs barking when there's a fence in between them knowing that Dana's gonna hold them back and then when the fence removed, they just like both like stop barking and look around and pretend like they weren't just tried to start a fight.

[9:20]And then that's usually all your media. If you don't have to do some media on that media strip after you get off the scale, you do a little bit of that. I think the only one I did was the UFC presented me with the UFC Mike Molock shirts.

[9:35]They got off the, they got off the scale. So, then you just go back, sit down and wait to get back on the shuttle and head back to the to the hotel. Go eat, relax, rehydrate, refuel. And then the next day, it goes down. We're scrapping.

[9:51]And then it's just hurry up and wait. Normally do a little shakeout on fight day, but try to avoid media, try to avoid all that stuff as much as possible. Conserve your focus and energy and just stay dialed in and and not get too hyped up before the fight.

[10:08]I think a lot of people that have never competed or like, oh, well, I would just get like so hyped and then I'd fight. It's like, you wake up at what if you're able to sleep in 10:00 a.m. And you're fighting at 11:00. Like that's 13 hours of just what?

[10:27]What do you do? You're going to watch a movie? Dude, you think you're concentrating on a movie when you got a fight tonight? No, you're going to let me get out of the hotel and let's go for a walk. You go for a walk, a bunch of fans stop. You want to talk to you, you're walking around. Once you're walking around, like, what do you do? Go do something? You can't go do anything high energy.

[10:47]So you just kind of sit around and wait, man. You just let that clock tick away. It's, uh, it's, it's a, an awkward and exciting day where you're like, I don't know what to do for the next 12 hours. It's extremely boring, but also stressful because your body knows that something exciting's going to happen tonight.

[11:10]Something wild's going to happen. You're just trying to keep that, keep that contained. You're like, don't get too hyped up. This guy's like, I just listen to my favorite my favorite song. I just get like hyped. Like, cool. You're gonna have an adrenaline rush at 11:00 a.m. And be flat as hell when you get in the Octagon.

[11:25]I have seen that so many times, not necessarily in the UFC, but amateur fights look entry level pro fights, guys, either earlier in the day or in the back, blasting music, just rapping along with it or screaming along with music and hyped and screaming and, and like dancing around. You're like, oh, this guy's new here. This guy does not know what's about to happen.

[11:45]They dump all their adrenaline. They don't fight for another three hours and you see them groggy and wide-eyed walk out to a fight just absolutely starched. And that's where you see a guy just deer in the headlights frozen and get absolutely starched. They're like, man, I'm getting like, I felt so good. It's like, yeah.

[12:02]And you you just revved the engine for hours on fight day just foot to the floor, pedal to the metal, not going anywhere, in park, burning your tires. And you just lost all your energy, man.

[12:20]By the time you got to the race, your treads burnt out and you're out of gas. Like, that's kind of one of the weirdest things that I don't think people understand is how weird fight day can be and how you have to learn to manage and fight with that and not fight against it.