Most professional athletes endure strict discipline when it comes to their diet. In the world of MMA, where drastic weight cuts are par for the course, this is doubly true. Clearly, the MMA gods forgot to tell Mariusz Pudzianowski, a former bodybuilder who switched to MMA thirteen years back, and eats whatever the heck he wants. Pudzianowski appeared on The MMA Hour ahead of his appearance at KSW 70 this weekend, when he described his unorthodox diet.
“I don’t have any kind of particular diet. I eat everything. I can eat 30 bars of chocolate, drink two cartons of milk, then eat five pounds of ice cream in bed.
Strongman-turned-MMA-fighter Mariusz Pudzianowski: “I eat whatever I want, whenever I want”
I eat whatever I want, whenever I want and I always have these beautiful muscles on my body.” Pudzianowski insists that his physique is the product of a dedicated training regimen rather than fork-to-mouth discipline. Having said that, his training has altered drastically over the course of his MMA career.
“MMA is a different sport than strongman. I must change everything. I had to train eight years to drastically change my body in the kind of way that my body is functioning because I couldn’t stand five minutes or 10 minutes. So for eight years of my training I wasn’t capable of doing the whole 10 minutes, like two rounds in MMA. So it’s totally different, weightlifting and MMA is like two worlds.
Even the strength in MMA and in weightlifting is totally different. It’s not like you can lift 300 kilograms in strongman, it doesn’t mean that the strength will be as good in MMA because it’s a different kind of strength.”
He once lost to former UFC heavyweight champ Tim Sylvia, and Pudzianowski plans to avenge that loss later this year.
“Later, I go to U.S.A., fight with Sylvia. Oh, I am crazy. Sylvia showed me first time what MMA is. After this fight with Sylvia, when I’m back in Poland, I talked to my fans. ‘Never beat me, next guy.’ And go to hard training.
Slowly, slowly, step by step, slowly, slowly, and go to heavy training. And now I am 13 years in MMA. Before, [I thought it would be] ‘Two fights. Finish.’”
Puszianowski’s brash attitude feels like a throwback to the earliest days of MMA, when the likes of Tank Abbott ran riot. Would you try the Mariusz Pudzianowski diet? Let us know what you think in the comments.
