UFC star Paul Craig has admitted that fighting in the middleweight division wasn’t good for his mental health.
Craig, who hails from Airdrie, Scotland cut down to 185 pounds after a brutal defeat to Johnny Walker at UFC 283 in Brazil two years ago.
‘Bearjew’ won his first fight at middleweight, stopping Andre Muniz after two rounds in London, but proceeded to lose his next three against Brendan Allen, Caio Borralho and Bo Nickal.
Allen and Borralho are both highly-ranked in the UFC middleweight division, while Nickal is hovering just outside of the top 15.
So it would be fair to say that Craig never shied away from a challenge during his time as a middleweight.
Now, as the 37-year-old gears up for a return to his original division, Craig has opened up on how an eating disorder helped him realise he wasn’t in the right place.
“I had a run at middleweight,” Craig told Shebahn Aherne and Gabby Agbonlahor on talkSPORT Breakfast.
“I originally started my career as a light heavyweight, had a very good career and decided, you know what, I could take advantage of being 6’4” and take it down a weight class.
“So I ended up cutting an extra 10kg of weight. It wasn’t as easy as I thought it was.
“I ended up having four fights at middleweight. I won one of them in London last time out.
“My other three fights I lost, but I was up against really good opponents.
“So I decided it was probably better that I move back up to light heavyweight.”
Scotland’s Craig is an MMA veteran and the only fighter to have defeated current light heavyweight champion Magomed Ankalaev in the UFC.
He made his debut with Dana White‘s promotion in 2016 having emerged as a five-time Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu British and Scottish champion, as well as holding a black belt in the discipline.
Craig posses elite ground game skills with 13 of his 17 pro victories coming by way of submission.
“I had developed a really bad eating disorder, as well as moving down to middleweight,” Craig added.
“It seems a much better fit for me at light heavyweight…the eating disorder, I’m in a weight based sport so I have to watch calorie consumption.
“I also have to go out and parade how I look, so you end up with not just having not only an eating disorder but how you look.
“Going out there, I want to look good the last thing I want to do is look out of shape. All of these negative things play on you as a fighter, so what you need to do is: What’s best for my mental health?
“Staying at middleweight definitely wasn’t best for my mental health.”
Craig will face off against Rodolfo Bellato at a UFC Fight Night event in Las Vegas’ UFC Apex on May 17, as reported by Eurosport’s Marcel Dorff.
Craig worked as a football coach in his local community in west Scotland before fighting, which he didn’t start until 24.
He then taught with an educational charity in high schools and had to take an unpaid six-month sabbatical from his job when he first joined the UFC.
Speaking on why he started to train in fighting, Craig told UFC.com he found out he was ‘pretty good at holding half-naked sweaty guys to the ground’ when first introduced to jiu-jitsu.
