Craig White made his UFC debut back at UFC Fight Night Liverpool, suffering a first round TKO loss to Neil Magny.
The fighter was a late replacement for the injured Gunnar Nelson and had to cut 46 pounds in two weeks in order to make his Octagon debut.
“For the John Redmond fight, I did 17 kilos (37-pounds) in nine days, it was horrendous. I got rid of eight kilos in water that time. I had never used salt baths before that. I genuinely felt like I was going to die when I was walking to the scales that time,” White told MMA Fighting. “Of course, I said I’d never do it again. I promised my coach [Dave Matthews] and my girlfriend that I’d never do it again. Then, the phone rings about two weeks before UFC Liverpool and Graham Boylan is asking me if I’m available to fight Neil Magny. In that moment, the Redmond cut was the first thing that crossed my mind. At that stage, I was out of camp and I was the heaviest I’d ever been. All I could hear in my head was, ‘You’re 98 kilos (216-pounds) — what the f*ck are you doing?’ Two seconds later I accepted the fight. I got stuck at about 87 kilos (191-pounds). You always get to a stage where you begin to plateau and that was it for me. The thing is, you know it usually takes a few days for the weight to start moving again, but I really didn’t have all that much time to work with. I ended up doing a monstrous session and suddenly I was 84 kilos (185-pounds).”
White did come in on point for the fight, which was easily the highest profile bout of his professional MMA career.
Another aspect of his UFC debut that White had to adjust to was the media obligations surrounding the contest.
“Another new thing was the additional media and the open workout. In my head, I couldn’t let anybody see how badly I was feeling because that could’ve given my opponent some kind of psychological advantage. As well as that, if I looked really bad I could’ve ended up getting pulled by the UFC,” says White.
It is unknown if White will get a second shot in the Octagon at this time, as the fighter was previously booked to competed at next months Cage Warriors 95 card before the UFC opportunity arose.
