Eddie Hall has taken on the ‘carnivore’ diet in an effort to drop weight for his first legitimate MMA fight next week.
The 2017 World’s Strongest Man winner will take on five-time champion Mariusz Pudzianowski at KSW 105 in Gliwice, Poland on April 26. He is expected to tip the scales at 341lb, which would be just under 60lb heavier than his opponent’s highest career fight weight.
Hall has fought before; a boxing match with Hafthor Bjornsson which he lost by decision and a 2v1 MMA ‘Freak Fight’ where he knocked out two brothers at once. However, next week’s fight is his first legitimate contest in the sport of MMA after about two years of training.
Eddie Hall’s carnivore diet is helping him to lose weight for MMA debut
In an effort to get in peak fighting shape, Eddie Hall has had a very specific diet. He is foregoing vegetables and sticking to meat, eggs and dairy in the ‘carnivore diet’ which has proven divisive with some users.
However, he has begun the drop from 170kg, or around 374lb, and expects to fight at 155kg, or 341lb. Speaking exclusively with Bloody Elbow ahead of the bout, he explained: “I just eat nothing but meat eggs and dairy on the carnivore diet for this fight prep.
“It’s been a pretty good diet, helped me to maintain all of my muscle mass and I’ve dropped body fat. My energy levels are through the roof, my endurance is insane so that’s pretty much been the diet.
“I’ve not restricted what I eat at all, I just eat meat, eggs and dairy and as much of it as I want. The body fat’s come off. When I started the prep I was 170kg and I’m down to 158kg. I might even lose a bit more and be strict, that would get me to fighting at around 155-156kg.
“I feel good and the main thing about it is that with my training it’s not about the weight but how fit I am. Am I doing these four minute rounds and being able to recover within 90 seconds to go again? At the minute, I can say yes. I’ve got no intention to lose too much weight because the cardio is there.”
Eddie Hall believes in maintaining size and power for fighting
The general consensus when it comes to moving from a sport like strongman to boxing or MMA is to lose a massive amount of weight for the sake of cardio. Hafthor Bjornsson shed over 110lb to face Hall, and looked a different man from their fighting days when they fought each other.
While Hall is considerably lighter than the 434lb he was when he lifted over 1100lb in a stunning show of strength, he still maintains considerable size. At 6’2″ he is quite short for a strongman, and maintains huge amounts of muscle mass even at 341lb.
“I’m strong and I’m a big believer that taking that into MMA makes you more dangerous,” he explained. “Mariusz proved that point when he first came into MMA and fought around 140kg, his size and strength; people were just s— scared of him.
“I’ve never heard a fighter come out of a fight and say ‘I wish I was weaker for that fight’. Never heard that, as long as you’re fit enough be as fit as you can be.”
