Oh I've enjoyed the read I got what you were saying no problem from me.
At first I didn't knew how serious you are about the subject so I didn't want to waste much time on it, usually I'm dealing with Conor fans that are total casuals when it comes to weight cutting and size of fighters and they just tell me to look at the weight ins result and that's that XD buy you seem to be into this so I will have a proper response for you, be warn I tend to be long sometimes. XD
I think Conor at first wasn't this expert when it comes to weight cutting since most of the fighters that aren't ex wrestlers don't ever have massive contact with weight cutting and even some of those don't do it the best way possible but they do have experience and get the job done in the end they make the weight one way or another.
Conor is a huge FW if we think about it not just lbs wise but a combination of factors he is huge from the overall stats like height, reach, lbs, frame wise etc everything and keep in mind he doesn't have any extra muscle mass like others (Mendes) or any extra fat when he is on FW he is the smallest possible version of himself and he had a bunch of weight cuts that were kinda in the limit he look like he lost 25+ lbs and didn't necessary do it the correct way.. I think he got a hang of it in the end but with age and those type of severe weight cuts at a base of 145 lbs % wise it's to much to do it on a regular and when the opportunity for him to go up make more money, get more fame, have a safety net with the lower division, it was clearly the choice to make and he run with it to the best of his abilities.
Then the all WW scale drama happen when Diaz was only trying to secure a better deal for himself (rumor is he negotiated his contract the first time around with a way bigger purse for all his remaining fights) and was playing "the game" with "alright today it's LW tomorrow it's 165 lbs cause I'm going out and I will eat up since I don't have a fight scheduled" and the time frame was what 10-11 days or so they brain stormed and decided screw it let's make it WW so like this the weight cut it's irrelevant we can eat what ever we like, Diaz lost some power of his negotiating, Conor can even set up his potential WW territory (remember the ideal plan he had 3 belts and KO'ing Lawler).. but in reality Conor ain't anywhere close to a real WW fighter in fact can you imagine him going up hardcore grapplers from that division ? the man has problems with a small guy in Mendes with extra muscle on him that could make freaking 135 if he dropped some muscle mass and he was having his way with him using his wrestling until the gas happened, so no way he doesn't anything relevant to WW big strong grapplers and I think he learn a thing or two about size and he learn it from a Diaz bro a fighter that doesn't even set up his game on physicality, strength, size etc like others.
I don't think Conor can be smaller then 165 for his fights in FW what is he 160 or high 150's ? you really think he gets that low I don't.
So it would be only natural to be way heavier if you are scheduled to fight at 170 lbs scale with a very little cut, even that Brendon Schaub guy on his podcast said he met up with Conor and he said he was 177 lbs like 2 weeks out of the fight when he asked him in a private diner or wtf they were doing.
Yea he was walking around in the high 170's 2 weeks out from his fight and he was free to eat good and not be super restrictive this wasn't going to be a problem just skip a meal, take a shit, do a workout, 45 minutes in the sauna or so and you lose those extra pounds while smiling and joking around this is the same guy that was doing huge 25 lbs cuts at a much lower base % wise.
As for Nate first time around he was using the weight as a negotiation tactic more then anything and the second time they started talking weight when Conor used that point with the media and his fans and casuals to point out why he lost at how big of a fighter Nate is and what a hard mountain to climb this will be so to say, so Nate in response also started talking about it at first kidding around that yea he such a monster 200 lbs then at the end of it probably downplaying it a bit, I don't believe he was indeed like he said low to mid 170's on fight night in fact I think he has low 180's the first fight and around the same for the second fight as well low to mid most likely while Conor was 177-178 first time and a bit smaller the second time 172-173 that only accentuated the difference between them more.
And let's not bring in the walk around weights when even Conor can be 180 (with all this WW scale scheduled fights) and Nate I'm sure he was 190s but it's different to in fight shape / fight night weights when you are lower.
Anyway we are speculating as fuck here cause we need to be the ones putting them on a scale to know precisely was up with both of them but I'm telling all this fights weren't decided by who had 10 lbs on who.. it's bull crap Diaz bros aren't fighters that use the size and bully you with wrestling and superior strength in fact p4p most likely Conor is stronger then lanky ass Nate.
Both of them will look and perform better in the LW division when they need to watch the diet just a bit more seriously and do a proper weight cut double digits.. when you know you have to lose 15-20 lbs it won't be the same like before you will be serious and it will be different then the more "hey yea that 170 scale so scary" both of them can do that shit most likely and be on weight in 24 hours while if you put them in LW I'm sure that process is a lot longer maybe even a week of strict dieting, starving almost, a serious water cut and all that stuff it comes with serious big weight cuts.
And you mention Rumble yea that dude was young and wanted to give himself every possible advantage so he went and did those stupid weight cuts he was having a bad time just maintaining his weight in between fight he was what ? 210~215 lbs walk around weight and he was fighting at ~200 lbs at WW witch is some serious cut the man did a double digit water cut, I can't even imagine his fight week routine to even try to get down it must have been hell. Just to put things in perspective he said he is walking around now at 235 lbs and he is probably fighting at 225 lbs on fight night he is still doing big cuts 18-20 lbs but to a much larger base of 205 lbs so % wise it's way easier.
Another confusion people make it's like that RDA example "yea I'm going from 190 to fight at LW 155" alright when he says that he means that his walk around weight when he isn't booked for a fight the man isn't walking in at 190 inside the cage at fight night it doesn't work like that you would need to be total freak to pull that off and I'm telling you the human body can't handle that shit on a regular, 2-3 fights a year nope it will fail on you.
So with my experience what exactly RDA is doing, 190 walk around weight.
You start doing the running routine and cleaning your diet and getting down in weight recovery that lost cardio.
Fight is signed, booked and you have a date on the calendar and you plan out your training camp and depends on the time you have it can be a 8 week to 10 week to even 12 week or more training camp but you do start working on that cardio and getting down in weight.
Ideal it will be to reach your fight night weight a few weeks out, so let's say you are on your normal weight 4-5-6 weeks left till you fight night and for him it should be around 175 lbs max 180 but I'm not sure he reaches that mark so most likely high 170's is the most for him.
So he reached that point and has been training and sparring at his fight night weight for a few weeks now and he will enter fight week when all serious training stops and it's all promotion, interviews, press conferences and weight cutting.
The point we are interested here is weight cutting so the main idea here is to get as low as possible before having to do the big water cut for the weigh ins and so you start by eating less and less each day, strictly the essentials and then you enter those 48 important hours (big weight cutters cut little by little and drain themselves a lot), there are different strategies they use for weight cutting, some use the stay in the bath with salt and covered in towels strategy, others use the plastic bag on a treadmill, that "Dolce" weight cut when they mess up with your water retention and you piss out every 3 fucking ours or wtf he had Chael doing or the good old sauna when you do sessions and check your weight after each of them until you are on point (we even had dudes that used diuretics so you shit out all the water, or even removal of blood, or some even more old school bro sciences shit like stand on your head before the weight ins and the scale will say 1-2 less lbs just ask Bas about that shit) etc a lot of strange stuff in the world of weight cutting and you do what ever works best for you, what you are most comfortable and used to and what ever is easier but you make that weight.
So the water cur for RDA isn't straight up doing a 20-22 lbs water cut (removes water from the body to be on the official scale) it's more like 12-14 or so lbs split in sessions because the rest was dieted down all week long and shitted out to the extreme.
Then after you start to put water slowly back in your body the sweet drink will be like a luxury and you eat up, load up on carbs, take a trucking shower it's the best feeling in the world at this point you used to have 30 or so hours to regain your lbs back at best your body will allow you and now they change the hour so you have like 36-38 hours.
So you see RDA can say "yea from 190 to 155" but in reality he is more like 175-177 lbs on fight night when he is fighting in the LW division. Same like how Tony Ferguson claimed some huge size but if you put him / them on a scale on fight night I will bet you anything that they aren't what they claimed earlier but it sure does looks great to casuals, to his opponents ('wow he so big, I need to get big to' .. maybe even messed with them mentally and psychically if he isn't comfortable cutting more) and human nature to up play your accomplishment and get more respect, attention, possible money when you negotiate with the cheap UFC guys and so forth people that are around that world will tell you this is the way it happens.
