Paul Craig’s UFC middleweight debut could scarcely have gone better. Craig demolished Andre Muniz, a ranked middleweight, with brutal ground-and-pound in the second round.
Although Craig sported a noticeably slimmer frame than he did when competing light heavyweight, he recently revealed on The MMA Hour that he actually entered the Octagon heavier than he had been in the higher weight division.
UFC Middleweight Paul Craig’s MASSIVE Weight Cut
“I was really, really skinny. My cheekbones, you could have grated cheese on those things, but then a few hours later, it’s amazing what the body can do.
Just after a couple of liters of water, following scientific basis through the support of the P.I. … from that, we were a different animal come Saturday night, and we bounced back further than we did as a light heavyweight.
Once we made the weight, I think we were 84.5 kg [186 pounds] on Friday morning, at the time of the fight we were 97 kg [213 pounds]. That’s heavier than what I was fighting Johnny Walker.
I think I was 95kg [209 pounds] as a bounce back then. So you can see the benefits of doing it. It’s probably not the best thing to be doing at the age of 35, but you can understand why athletes do it, why guys make these huge cuts, because it’s a huge advantage, and it showed on Saturday.”
Although Craig moved down following a two-fight losing streak at light heavyweight, he claims the movee was a long time coming. “As a light heavyweight, we’ve always been, ‘Can we make middleweight? Is it something that’s achievable?’
What we did was, we did the tests. We made sure it was possible to slim all the way down, and it worked. It’s been some adventure the last six months of my career, going from getting knocked out to rebuilding myself back up, to now becoming in the mix again at not only light heavyweight but middleweight now.”
Craig isn’t ready to close the door on his career in the second-heaviest division, however. He boasts notable victories over elite 205-pounders, and the Scotsman believes he can still hang with the best of the best.
“Although the great success was 185, I’ve still got victories over Jamahal Hill and Ankalaev, [Nikita] Krylov as well. Some really, really tough names in that division. I can still hang with these guys.
What was massive in this fight here was not only was it moving to 185, that played in a positive for me, but it was also the fact that I’ve now got a coach who is a phenom at striking.
So he’s passed on this knowledge to me, and that was the reason why Paul was a much better version of himself. Paul can actually strike now.
He looks a little bit more confident after six months of working with James [Doolan], so six months later, what’s he going to be like? What’s his skillset going to be like for striking and takedowns?”
