After post-weigh-in rehydration snafu, UFC's Derek Brunson pledges change in preparation

Things were going pretty well for Derek Brunson last month in Georgia.

As a 2-to-1 underdog against Yoel Romero on the main card of UFC Fight Night 35, not many people expected Brunson to be in the fight. But there he was, staying on his feet against the silver medal-winning Olympic wrestler from Cuba.

And not only had he stuffed all four of Romero’s takedowns in the first two rounds, but he had taken him down three times. Even Brunson may have found that hard to believe going in.

But in the span of about three minutes in the third round, everything went south on Brunson. Something felt off when he got up from his stool to start the third round. Midway through the final frame, comfortably up two rounds on the favored Romeo, Brunson was fading, and fading fast.

Romero hit him with one punch. Then another. Brunson tried to defend, but everything was moving a step behind. And before he knew it, he was on the canvas eating a barrage of ground-and-pound punches and elbows from the Cuban until referee Blake Grice finally stepped in to save him.

There were immediate physical results of the loss. Brunson broke his jaw and needed surgery to repair it. That will keep him out until early fall, at the soonest. Ironically, there was a positive financial benefit from the setback, as Brunson and Romero pocketed $50,000 each for “Fight of the Night.”

But according to Brunson, the loss wasn’t as simple as most outside observers have made it out to be on social media, believing the former collegiate wrestler simply ran out of gas in the third round – something that hasn’t happened to him in the past.

Brunson did hit a wall in the third, but it wasn’t from a lack of preparation from a cardio standpoint. Brunson told MMAjunkie that one small change in his post-weigh-in routine set everything spiraling over the next 24 hours, and left him in a bad spot come fight time. Gassing out in the third was inevitable, he believes, and all started after making weight.

“I didn’t stick to my normal routine,” Brunson said. “Normally, I get an IV to rehydrate, which pretty much everybody does. But the lady doing my IV this time missed my vein three times right after weigh-ins. At that point, I was like, ‘I’m just going to forget it and rehydrate with water.’”

Brunson said the person who normally runs an IV for him after making weight didn’t do it for this fight. Instead, a friend of a friend, who he said has experience doing IV treatments for fighters, made the attempt a couple hours after he got off the scale. And for whatever reason, it was three strikes, and still no vein.

After cutting 20 pounds to make the middleweight limit – pounds he said typically come off pretty tough because he’s lean – Brunson started pounding the fluids. And all the liquid jacked with being able to eat properly on fight day.

“Before the fight, I was (urinating) every two minutes,” he said. “I’d get more water, then I’d walk again, then I’d pee again, then I’d drink more water. It messed up my whole appetite and the way I do things. I ate breakfast at 11 that morning, and I fought at 8 p.m. and I didn’t eat all day because my stomach was so full with water from trying to hydrate. That’s pretty much the story of why I gassed all at once – I was so dehydrated.”

The loss is one that Brunson is going to have to live with until his jaw fully heals and until he can book another fight and get back in the octagon. That should give him plenty of time to do what he believes needs to happen to not only move past the setback, but to make sure he’s not in that position again.

“That was a great opportunity to work toward the top 10 and start working toward a title and start thinking about it. But I let the opportunity go, and it’s back to the drawing board now,” he said. “I’ll be working with a nutritionist to find out how to rehydrate properly, because whatever I’m doing isn’t working. I’ll get a good meal plan and a good way to rehydrate, and never forget that IV. That’s the important thing to get the fluids back in you so that you’re able to perform.”

Another thing that is picking at Brunson a little in the nearly three weeks since the fight is that he had been doing so good for 10 minutes with a lesson he learned in August 2012 against Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza, a fight he lost in just 41 seconds to close out his Strikeforce career.

“In this fight, I knew he had world-class wrestling, and I was going to be patient,” Brunson said. “From the ‘Jacare’ fight, I learned patience. Thinking back, I achieved that, but I didn’t do all things I needed to. I should’ve known better than to not rehydrate properly.”

More than anything, though, Brunson would be happy to clear his name a little from the quick assumption that he has cardio concerns when he hits the third round. The fight with Romero was the fifth time he had been into the third round, and he’s now 3-2 in those fights – including a split-decision loss to Kendall Grove that he believes he won.

“Everybody’s been hitting me up, texting me, Facebook, Twitter, like, ‘Man, you were doing a great job in the fight. What happened? You just went bad all of the sudden. You gassed and got tired.’ I haven’t really explained to anyone, just my friends,” Brunson said. “I just want to clear up the errant cardio issue. I don’t have a cardio issue. I don’t smoke. I don’t drink. There’s no reason why I shouldn’t have the best cardio in the UFC at 185. Not taking anything away from Yoel, because he’s a great fighter and he did what he had to do.”

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