UFC Title Contender Explains His Three Gallon Water Trick for Cutting Weight on Fight Week

Former undisputed welterweight title challenger, Stephen Thompson has revealed his trick to his sizeable cut to 170lbs over recent years, which includes a massive water load during fight week before hitting the scales on Friday morning.

Thompson, a former two-time welterweight championship chaser and perennial contender in the division, has solely competed at the weight class during his lengthy Octagon tenure.

And failing to ever miss weight during his run with the Dana White-led promotion, Simpsonville striker, Thompson recently revealed a keen water loading secret which aids his sizeable cuts to the limit during an appearance on the JAXXON Podcast.

“The week of the fight, on the Sunday before fight week, my goal was to drink three gallons,” Stephen Thompson revealed. “So you just saturate your body, then cut half a gallon each day leading up to the weight cut.

“Of course, you have to take your vitamins, minerals, and magnesium because you flush those out,” Stephen Thompson continued. “We’ve had fighters experience severe body cramps for hours. You have to manage that properly.
To be honest, I have a nutritionist who comes in to help.”

Stephen Thompson targets UFC return in the summer

Most recently featuring at UFC 307 last October, Thompson would be finished with strikes for just the second time in his professional career, dropping a rallying knockout loss to surging challenger, Joaquin Buckley at altitude in Salt Lake City.

And yet to be booked for his return, the former title challenger welcomed the chance to take on the soon-to-return former lightweight title challenger, Donald Cerrone in a showdown this summer.

“So maybe I’m thinking April-May time [for a return to the UFC], I think would be cool just because I’m a huge fan of (Donald) Cerrone and he comes from that old school era that I kind of came from almost 13-14 years ago, so it’s cool that he wants to jump back out there,” Stephen Thompson said on the Overdogs Podcast.

“I thought it would be awesome if he doesn’t want to cut the weight to 155, maybe to make that fight at 170, I thought it would be really cool to have two veterans like that step back out there and face off against each other,” Stephen Thompson explained. “But nothing booked yet, but that’s what I’m kind of shooting for, that April-May time.”