UFC weigh-in snack mastermind Yves Edwards talks inspiration for gimmick – and its biggest victim

When it comes to pre-fight gimmicks, offering food to your starving post-weigh-in opponent seems pretty harmless.

And, well, it kind of is. But if you’re a crafty snack expert like former UFC lightweight Yves Edwards (42-22-1 MMA, 10-10 UFC), even a cute trick can be used as offense. Don’t believe us? Let the fighter-turned-analyst himself tell the tale.

The year was 2011. The opponent was Cody McKenzie. The seemingly innocuous weapon? Hot chips.

“I knew what was going to happen, because I do that stuff, and the time and those things turn to paste in your mouth when your mouth is dry like that,” Edwards told MMAjunkie Radio. “I ate a few of them, and I gave him some.

“I could see it in his face that he was trying to – he was like, ‘Oh, what is going on in my mouth?’ But I didn’t react to it. I could just see it in his face, and I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s one for me.'”

Whether his evil trickery helped or not, Edwards did come out victorious of the UFC Fight Night 23 encounter thanks to a second-round rear-naked choke. And while he wasn’t able to maintain the good results in his final outings before retiring, the “Thugjitsu Master” did keep a steady influx of snacks coming.

From Twinkies to Snickers bars, with the occasional chipotle in the mix, bringing food to the escale became a trademark move that often lightened up the mood at an otherwise tense moment between two usually dehydrated fighters on edge.

While being able to carry – and often ingest – the extra grams while still up on the scale is a luxury not many fighters could afford, Edwards says his smooth cut down to 155 pounds usually allowed him some wiggle room.

Still, there were some officials who weren’t there for his gimmick. Like the woman who unceremoniously took his chips away.

“I was a little upset about that,” Edwards said. “Because that kind of ruined – not ruined my gimmick, but … I actually did kind of save it with her taking my chips away from me. Kind of made it even more apparent that I was doing something.”

Looking back, Edwards thinks a UFC 58 meeting with former featherweight title challenger Mark Hominick – to which Edwards brought a full-on burger – was the start of the whole thing.

As for the (unlikely) source of inspiration?

“(Former boxing world champion) Ricardo Mayorga,” Edwards said. “I think he ate an apple at a weigh-in or something, and I was like, ‘You know, that’s cool.’ But like an apple is healthy, so I’m gonna eat some crap food at the weigh-ins, and I’m just going to act like it’s no big deal for me.'”

To hear more from evil snack mastermind Edwards, check out the video above.

And for more on the UFC’s upcoming schedule, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.

The Blue Corner is MMAjunkie‘s official blog and is edited by Mike Bohn.