Sour cream and pancakes, but no bruises: Khabib Nurmagomedov reveals his toughest opponent - food (VIDEO)

UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov has never been defeated in his MMA career, but he admitted that his battle with the scale has pushed him harder than almost any opponent in his career.

Speaking at the Synergy Forum in St. Petersburg, Russia, Nurmagomedov revealed that, even with an increased schedule of personal appearances and obligations since becoming the UFC lightweight champion, he still manages to work regular training sessions into his routine. But he said the biggest problem he’s faced is resisting the temptation of food that lies around every corner.

“The problem is with nutrition,” he explained.

“I get offered food everywhere, sometimes there’s a whole banquet, it’s a little difficult. They offer all sorts of things. Some might find it funny, but for me it’s not funny because I’m the one who has to drop those 16-17kg. Yes. That’s how much.

“Nutrition is the most important thing. Now I understand why, because when I was 23 I ate a lot but now I’m 31 and I digest food differently because the metabolism slows down. I constantly have to stay at a certain weight. Even when I eat now I think of the weight I have to cut in 5-6 months. Therefore you don’t eat enough, psychologically you can’t.”

When asked what he ate, and was told gymnasts sometimes say they eat just a blade of grass a day, Nurmagomedov joked about his out-of-camp guilty food pleasures.

“Right now I’m definitely not eating blades of grass,” he smiled.

“Right now I eat well everywhere. Meat, a lot of meat. Bread… I can’t do without bread and tea with sugar. I’m not a fan of butter. I like sour cream, cottage cheese… preferably fatty.

“Two months before I fight I follow a strict diet. The last time it was my best weight cut because I recovered well, I gained 10kg. When I entered the octagon I weighed 80kg and a day before I was at 70.3kg.”

When asked how on earth it’s possible for him to gain almost 10kg in a day, Khabib joked: “Sour cream! With high fat content!” before revealing another of his guilty pleasures: “Condensed milk. I like it on pancakes.”

Khabib’s light-hearted comments about his diet then turned into a serious tale about how cutting weight has badly affected him in the past.

“I almost died once from cutting weight, that happened,” he said before laughing it off by saying: “I think I had too much sour cream!

“This other time when I had major problems with cutting weight, well more so than cutting weight I had health problems due to my kidneys. I had to be treated, had do a lot of aftercare. It’s the nature of the sport. We consciously take on such a big risk and there’s a big chance that you can ruin your health.”

But while Khabib admitted he’s had some serious battles when cutting weight in the past, he hasn’t had so many issues during the fights themselves.

“I’ll tell you a notable fact that in my 10-year amateur career and 11 years as a professional, I don’t remember a single time I had a bruise,” he said.

“I’ve done contact sports all my life and no one’s ever hit me so that it left a bruise or a scratch after a fight. In that sense the almighty supports me.”