Mike Dolce has received mixed reviews as of late, and Tito Ortiz has now joined the select few who have voiced their opinions on his much hyped diet and weight cutting program. His criticism stems from the controversial B.J. Penn loss, and the UFC Hall-of-Famer spoke about it during his last appearance at Submission Radio.
Related: BJ Penn looking to have ‘heart to heart’ with Mike Dolce’s glass jaw
Check out the transcript as he spoke about Dolce and his own philosophies on cutting weight below:
“Well strictly in my opinion on Mike Dolce, I think that everything he does is a fad, and that’s strictly my opinion. I’ve been cutting weight since my sophomore year in high school, and what you put in your body is what you weigh, and of course it’s how your body’s gonna burn. All these guys are just putting in protein for energy. Well your body doesn’t burn on protein for energy, it’s called carbohydrates. Complex carbs. Things you do stay away from is white bread, white rice, white pasta. Everything should be wheat, and whatever you put in is what you’re going to gain, because you’re burning so many calories.”
“This type of diet is not for a person who’s an average person, and not a weight cut for an average person. We’re burning 3500 calories a day. You gotta intake 3500 calories just to keep the weight on, and this is just strictly talking about myself. And I watch a lot of wrestlers do it, and during the weight cut I’ve watched so many guys that have worked with Dolce; and by one I mean BJ Penn.”
“During the time that he cut his weight and when he lost to Frankie Edgar, he was weighing 149 pounds the week of the fight. I was like 149 pounds the week of the fight? What? You gotta at least be 10 pounds a week before the fight above the weight. Not 4 pounds. And [BJ Penn] goes “Yeah yeah I know. It’s just I didn’t understand”. [Dolce] had him eating berries, had him eating nuts. That’s fine and dandy if you’re a track runner or a distance runner or something like that. You want to put in carbohydrates in your body so that you have energy to really push yourself during the rounds.”
“That’s a conversation I had strictly with BJ too, of him telling me that the day of the fight he felt flat, he didn’t eat. And Dolce had that – what was it? UFC Expo – and he was trying to get back to feed BJ and he didn’t get back in time and he was giving BJ like salads, and I mean that’s after the weigh-ins. After a weigh-in I’m eating carbohydrates. I’m eating pancakes, I’m eating bread, I’m eating as much as I possibly can, to burn my body; and yes you can eat too much, get too overweight, and be slower, but I mean you gotta weight up to normal to get to the 10-15 pound range and that fine, that’s great. I mean Pedialyte is one of the big things I want to drink, and anybody that’s ever seen me when I weigh in. The first thing I do as soon as I get off the scale, I don’t turn and face the guy, I’m reaching for the Pedialyte. ‘Cause I’ve got to feed my body, and my body wants something to drink right then. And that’s what’s really important, is people trying to keep their weight down and make that weight cut easier for them turn in as in a wrestling attitude.”
“I mean we cut 13 pounds, 15 pounds. That’s a two day cut, it’s no problem. It’s a two day cut sacrifice. As soon as the weight comes off, as soon as you make that weight, put that weight back on as fast as possible, and that’s most important.”
“I’ve been doing it like I said for 17 and a half years, and the only weight cut I’ve ever had problems with was when I fought [Antonio] Nogueira. And that was probably the worst cut I ever had. Of course I came in really heavy. I came in about 239. I did – what was it – 28 pounds in three days. I thought I was gonna die, and that was the worst weight cut I’ve ever done. I’ll never do that again, but I wasn’t prepared for that fight plain and simple. That’s how it was. But the weight cut, it really comes down to what you eat is what you weigh. Of course I’m not going out eating cheese burgers, or Taco Bell, or fast food. No. You treat your body like a machine. You have to feed it like a machine. If you want it to train like a machine everything has to be super clean.”
“I mean as far as brown rice, chicken, fish. Steak should only be up to the week before. The week of is a little harder to break down steak during the weight cut. After the weight cut happens, steak is great for your body because it’s high in protein and it’ll take a good 9 to 10 hours to digest, but if your body is used to doing it, it won’t have a problem doing it.”
“Dolce says ‘well I’ve had 20 fights and this and that’ and ok that’s fine, but when I hear someone who’s a former world champion and questioning the weight cut, and saying how bad his fight was because he had no energy – and it showed in his fight that he had to no energy – BJ Penn. I question that.”
“And someone like BJ who’s a close friend of mine, I don’t want to see his career be over because someone made the mistake of not feeding him the right things, and all of a sudden he’s making millions off of the fans in general by saying that ‘Dolce Diet is the way to do it’. And this is my opinion, strictly my opinion. I’m not saying about no facts, I’m saying about what I have heard and what I have seen, and that’s the way I think of it. And if you’re going to cut weight the right way. I guess the right way is do it yourself.”
Watch the entire clip above, where Ortiz also speaks about Cyborg vs. Rousey and being disinterested in facing a ‘nonsense fighter’ and ‘journeyman’ in King Mo.
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