There's been a lot made about the dangers of weight-cutting in MMA in recent time, and this footage of former UFC women's strawweight champion Joanna Jędrzejczyk from 2015 is genuinely scary to watch and shows the toll it takes on athletes' bodies.
The clip, which was apparently banned by UFC when it first came to light because of how shocking it was, has been doing the rounds following news that the 32-year old had parted company with her nutritional team, Perfecting Athletes, after a gruelling weight-cut ahead of UFC 217 saw her lose her undefeated streak, and title, to Rose Namajunas in the first round, following a 966-day reign.
It shows Joanna, the first ever Polish UFC champion, looking incredibly shrivelled and exhausted, first lying down with a slew of towels over and around her, before looking in absolute agony in the bath.
"Joanna Violence" would go on to soundly defeat her opponent, Jessica Penna, via TKO in the third round of her first defence of the women's strawweight title, in Berlin, but the sheer extreme nature of flip-flopping makes for frightening viewing.
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She was not working with Perfecting Athletes at the time, but announced she has split following what she calls "unforgivable mistakes" prior to her first UFC defeat.
In an interview with Przemysław Osiak of Przeglad Sportowy, where she also detailed how she had to cut around 16 pounds in a 14-hour window for her last fight, she said.
"It was an accident what happened, "I know that I should have won the match, and I know that I could have won the match. The people that I was working with led me to a critical state.
"I told my doctor I need to do whatever to weigh 115. I don't care if I have to be in a tub with whatever temperature. It gets harder and harder as you get older to cut weight."
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In October 2017, Paige VanZant shared a topless picture which highlighted what a dangerous practice weight-cutting is.
The laborious fight-before-the-fight even resulted in her passing out in the bathroom. Speaking to MMA Fighting, she said:
"It's a big cut for me. I'm a lot heavier than people realise. I was honestly killing myself for this sport. In my last I want to say two fights or three fights, I've passed out in my bathroom. This last one, I passed out and had the doctors almost not cleared me for the fight.
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"I'm a big advocate for body positivity and I was putting myself through an eating disorder to make weight."
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