ISLAM MAKHACHEV has revealed the secret to his massive weight gain ahead of UFC 322.
The former lightweight and pound-for-pound king will return to the octagon a week on Sunday morning to challenge Jack Della Maddalena for the welterweight crown.
Their eagerly anticipated meeting, which will top the bill of a stacked UFC 322 card at Madison Square Garden in New York City, will be Makhachev’s first outing at 170lbs.
Makhachev – the protege of MMA legend Khabib Nurmagomedov – is set to look drastically different on the scale on weigh-in day as he won’t have to cut down to 155lbs.
And his bigger physique will be the byproduct of finally adding creatine to his diet.
The Russian revealed to ESPN: “I’m using creatine for the first time in my life, almost every day.
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“It’s the first supplement where I actually see real changes. It helps with recovery, helps gain weight, gives strength.”
Increasing strength and putting on size were Makhachev’s main goals for this training camp.
And the Dagesani destroyer is looking forward to seeing how he performs on fight night now that he won’t have to perform his gruelling cut down to lightweight.
He said: “Our first camp was focused on strength training.
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“Everything got very tough — I started working with bigger guys.
“It’s really hard to gain mass, but eventually I got a bit bigger. Over the last couple of months, it’s been a struggle.
“I was taking protein and creatine after every training session and tried to eat more.
“But it’s difficult to gain weight when you train twice a day.
“I want to weigh around 87 kg, and about 83 kg during fight week. I used to weigh 82–83, now it’s 87. The weight cut will be very easy.
“I used to feel like I recovered only 60–70% [at lightweight]. It’s hard to recover in just 30 hours.
“Now I’m really curious to see how I’ll recover.
“I already feel it’s going to be different, especially in the later rounds, the championship rounds.”
