Mo Lawal is no stranger to cutting weight. High school and collegiate wrestling, followed by Olympic trials and a successful MMA career, almost makes him an expert on the topic. With the failure of Anthony Johnson to make weight for tomorrow’s bout with Vitor Belfort, Lawal gave his opinion of Johnson’s weight debacle, and dropped a little weight cutting science, as well. Here’s what he had  to say:

Weigh-ins and Twitter Reactions

“First of all, I’m gonna let it be known, that I am not coming with any excuses for Anthony “Rumble” Johnson. He should have made weight. Fighters are supposed to make weight for their fights. That being said, he missed weight, but there’s still a fight, so everyone shouldn’t be mad. I go on Twitter and everybody is like, ‘Wow, AJ missed weight, what a fatass’ or ‘He eats too much’, this and that. Who are they to say what happened? No one knows the truth.”

Black Elvis

“I’ve known Rumble for a long time, and I think he could have messed his body up from all the weight cutting he did in the past. When I met Rumble, I used to call him Black Elvis. We met back in 2003 and we were doing a wrestling camp in Reno, NV. I saw him, and I thought, ‘This dude is big as Hell. What weight class does he wrestle at?’  I wrestled at 197, and he was bigger than me. He was a 184 pounder. He walked around at about 210 at that time. One day I’m watching TV, Ultimate Fight Night, and I’m seeing Anthony Johnson on there. Then I see him in an interview, and I’m like, ‘That dude looks like a skinny Black Elvis.’ I texted my boy and said ‘Is that Black Elvis on TV?’ My boy was like, ‘Naw, ain’t no way Black Elvis can make 170.’ Come to find out, it was him.”

Dying to make weight

“Now, years past, he’s over here, dying to make 170. If you’re a collegiate wrestler, you know that the more you dehydrate yourself, the more weight cuts you do, the worse it is on your kidneys and your body. I think with Rumble coming to 170, it set this whole thing up. He quite possibly ruined himself for the future. Maybe I’m speculating myself, but I know, from cutting weight myself. I used to cut from 215 to 184, and I know how hard it was. I had to take a year off from making that weight to go up to 211. It was real bad on my  kidneys. Daniel Cormier was the same way. You see it all the time with guys that cut a lot of weight. It damages your kidneys. With him (AJ) cutting to 170 for those years, I think it hurt him.”

Physician ordered hydration

“First of all, an IV is great for you, especially after cutting a lot of weight. Let’s do the math. He woke up at 191.5 and he has to make 186, so that means he’s 5.5 pounds over. Let’s say he gets the IV. One bag weighs 2.2 pounds. Two IV bags, which is a standard for rehydration, weigh 4.4 pounds. 191.5 plus the 4.4 is 196, give or take. Say he drinks a little water, that’s 197. BINGO! BAM!”

The 205 concession for Belfort match

“If he goes to the ring, and he’s weighing 205, I guarantee you, he’ll have to cut some weight, or he’ll have to starve himself. I think it’s gonna be hard for him to stay below 205. If it goes past one round, Vitor will win. Anthony is a hell of a fighter, and I like him, but with what he’s going through right now, I think he’ll have to get a first round KO in order to win, or a submission.”

After this interview, I spoke with Mo at length, and he shared a story with me about weighing in at the Olympic trials with Daniel Cormier. Unfortunately, this wasn’t part of the original audio interview, but it was recorded. I got permission from Mr. Lawal to include the story in this article. I figure it’s the perfect way to wrap up the dangers of weight cutting into a neat little bundle for all you aspiring athletes.

“I’ve seen guys carried out and put on the scales to weigh in, looking like skeletons. During the Olympic trials, me and Daniel Cormier had to cut an outrageous amount of weight. We both made weight, but we couldn’t move. My neck was cramping up, and I could barely walk. Daniel was was getting light headed and faint. We had to sit there at those scales, and get some help to get off of them. Our coach was all pissed off because we looked so weak. Daniel would drink something, then throw up. It was bad. You actually lose your senses to a degree. Your hearing starts to fade, your vision gets blurry.  That’s when IVs come in handy. There was one time, after a weigh in, the nurse was trying to give me an IV, but had to start it in my foot, because my veins kept collapsing. She stuck me 11 times, before she finally went to my foot. I don’t even know how I continued to wrestle at the Olympic trials.”