Adam Milstead returns to Octagon action this Saturday Night at UFC 222 and his opponent is going to be Jordan Johnson.
The light heavyweight is returning to action for the first time in over a year after dealing with a variety of injuries, but the fighter believes the injuries are becoming a part of who he is.
“It has (helped a little), I don’t know if its a good thing to be proud of or something like that. I have dealt with injuries before, I know what it takes to come back. I know what it takes to at least get in their with the confidence to fight again. The injuries in the past, they sucked, but they’re a part of who I am now… I guess. I just that type of guy who doesn’t know how to quit, just want to keep going,” Milstead said in an exclusive interview with Fightful’s James Lynch.
Milstead last competed at UFC Fight Night 104, where he battled Curtis Blaydes to a no contest after Blaydes failed a post-fight drug test for marijuana
This event is also going to mark Milstead’s UFC Light Heavyweight Division debut, a move that caused the fighter to make some lifestyle changes.
“I had to stop drinking beer and I had to stop eating pizza. Its been pretty rough, only because I’m extremely active. What was kind of strange at heavyweight for me…I’ve always had an issue maintaining the weight, so the heaviest I was ever at was 245 (pounds). At that point, I was close to eating 6,000 to 7,000 calories a day. I was eating up to six meals a day, nothing but chicken breasts, eggs. I was doing high calorie protein shakes and it was so brutal on myself, it got to the point where like I never enjoyed eating and never enjoyed food. My girlfriend at the time was like ‘lets go out, lets eat something’ and I was like ‘I don’t really want to go out. What am I going to do, go out and eat some more, I just had a whole rotisserie chicken.’ It sucked maintaining that weight, but when I stopped eating, when I said I want to go to light heavyweight…I dropped ten pounds just thinking about it. Of course I had to take it a little bit further, I stopped drinking the heavy IPA’s that I love to drink. I had to stop eating out with the guys at work, started eating a little more salads. There’s benefits to the fact that I’m going to light heavyweight, number one…I’m lighter and my joints feel better, number two…I’m healthier because I’m not drinking beer and I’m not eating pizza. I’m eating salads, I haven’t even gotten to the point where I’m counting calories yet. More or less, its just lowering my intake. I’m still staying as active, if not even more active. My body is doing real well with my dropping down and the diet itself kinda sucks, at this particular point, about two weeks prior to the fight…I’m starting to feel it now and we’’ see what happens. Luckily I only have to be 205 (pounds) for a half an hour and then I can go and enjoy my steak and stuff like that,” says Milstead.
UFC 222 takes place on Saturday, March 3 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada with Cyborg and Yana Kunitskaya headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, with a post-show podcast to follow.
