UFC stars are gaining an edge in MMA by managing their weight with Lou Giordano.

Giordano was a long time trainer that happened into MMA after meeting with The Ultimate Fighter finalist Eddie Gordon. Upon hearing his particular weight cutting method, Giordano set out to educate fighters on proper weight management methods. Word about Giordano and his services quickly spread through the MMA community.

To date, Giordano has worked with Andrei Arlovski, Johny Hendricks, and Jon Jones to name a few. Aside from his services, Giordano has earned notoriety from his beef with his contemporary, Mike Dolce.

Cage Pages caught up with Giordano to get a little more information on what makes him different from his competition.

Giordano started out by explaining his foray into MMA training.

“I’ve been in the health and fitness industry for 16 years. I started working in gyms, you know big box gyms, running training departments and you know doing that. My brother started sponsoring local fighters. We live in New Jersey. We went to a couple local events in Atlantic City, at that time he had met Eddie “Truck” Gordon, who won season 19 of The Ultimate Fighter, and started sponsoring him, and I got to meet him through my brother.”

From there Giordano learned of Eddie’s weight cutting methods and felt inclined to offer some professional help.

“When Eddie would tell me how much weight he would cut I was amazed. I didn’t think people in this sport still cut weight the same way we did 20 years ago. We started talking and we agreed after his last fight that I would help him. Based on how I helped him, how he looked, and how he felt, it kind of sparked in me that I could really help a lot of people in this industry and that’s kind of what drummed it up. After Eddie I helped with Aljamain Sterling for a fight, and then after Aljamain, I helped Jorge Masivdal for a fight. This was all remotely, you know, I wasn’t with them. It was all over the phone, with them sending me pictures of their food and me helping them out.”

After Giordano’s success working remotely, he put his name in the hat to work with some of the biggest names in the UFC.

“After Masvidal I did an interview-I actually think it was with Cage Pages, I can’t remember it was such a long time ago, offering my services to Johny Hendricks and BJ Penn because I’m not necessarily a fan of Mike Dolce’s work. I don’’t say anything negative about him as a person, because I don’t know him as a person, but I’m not a fan of what he does with this athletes. I offered to help Johny and BJ Penn because those are two of my favorite fighters and fighters who spoke publicly about not being happy with him. MY PR rep Bryan Levick texted Johny Hendricks, Johny read it, we spoke three days later and then I flew out to him five days later. I’ve been working with him ever since. After Johny Hendricks I got teamed up with Jon Jones. After Jon Jones, Andrei Arlovski. After him, BJ Penn.”

Besides managing fighters’ weights, Giordano has written out strength and conditioning programs for a few MMA fighters as well.

“It’s funny, I actually have a degree in exercise science. I started as a trainer, worked my way up through the industry as a trainer almost 16 years ago. I did some work in a physical therapist’s office, rehabbing and rehabilitation and stuff like that, and various certifications in the health and fitness industry. I’m a certified weight management specialist, which does allow me to run meal plans and manage people’s weights. I do put some of my guys on weight training regiments depending on who they’re working with, if they have an SC program already. I will design cardio routines for them as well if they don’t. A guy like Jose Shorty Torres (Titan FC bantamweight), he’s one of my favorite fighters to work with. He’s 2-0 as a pro. We’ve been working together for this last 2 fights. I’m helping him with his weight training and his cardio, plus his food. We’re actually going down a weight class to 25. His last two fights were at 35. It just depends on what my guy needs. I’m the type of person that if I’m with somebody I try to do everything I can to help them. I’m not there to just cook a pretty plate of food and post it on my Instagram so, you know, it gets a bunch of likes because the plate is pretty.”

When most people hear of Giordano, Dolce, George Lockhart, or anyone else in that field, they think they are just dietitians. With that in mind we asked Giordano to explain what makes his services different.

“This could also go towards another big difference between Dolce, and the other guy that does what I do. The one common thing that I find is that when they create a program for somebody, or when they put them on a diet if that’s what they do, you know, I’ve had people say, ‘Well you have me eating onions, and I don’t like onions. I despise onions. Can I swap out onions?’ And both guys have said no. One guy said put some salt and pepper on it. To me, you can’t preach lifestyle change if you’re forcing guys to eat foods they don’t enjoy. That’s not lifestyle change, that’s torture. So what I do is based off of their pallet. Based off of the food they like and they enjoy, I then start to manipulate a realistic meal plan, and show them that they can still eat a lot of the food they enjoy while still being on the right structured program to help their weight come down, and their strength go up. The other thing is that, I’ve actually learned recently, and I said this in another interview. One guy asked me, ‘Why would I hire you versus them?’ If you’re a fighter who’s going to dehydrate yourself to make weight, as many fighters do, and these other guys that do what I do also help their fighters dehydrate themselves to make weight, water loading and all this stuff. If you’re a fighter who’s going to dramatically dehydrate yourselves to make weight, and then you need a rehydration formula, I’m not the guy for you. I’m not the guy to call. That’s not what I do. I don’t rehydrate guys that are dramatically dehydrated. I hydrate guys that are still hydrated when they make weight. It’s very different.”

With Dolce specifically, Giordano has had a relatively colorful relationship in the past. Before ending our chat, Giordano went into the specifics of what makes him a valuable asset, compared to Dolce, in his opinion.

“Man, I don’t think it’s one thing. I think it’s many things, personally, but if I had to try to narrow it down as best as I can: For one I’m the guy that’s actually doing the meal plans. I know Dolce has made it public that he has a team of registered dietitians that make up his programs. I’m not too sure as to what it is that he actually does. I do know because I’ve spoken with a lot of fighters that have worked with him. In my opinion, he does extreme weight cutting. You know 20-plus pounds during fight week. To me that’s extreme, and I don’t do that. He does extreme weight cutting. He puts them on diets, I help change their lives by teaching them how to manage their weight by putting them on diets year round. The other thing is I’m with them when they win, and when they lose. I know that he can’t say the same thing. Once again I haven’t had a guy come out yet, other than Mike Dolce, talk negative about me. Mike’s been very vocal about me being a criminal, and that I should be thrown in jail. All of my guys have not said one negative thing about me. I guess I’m doing something right. You know, I’m going from fighter to fighter. If I’m doing something so bad after Johny Hendricks, then I don’t know if Jon Jones, the best fighter in the world, would have hired me. Or Andrei Arlovski. Or BJ Penn.”

Next: Anthony Pettis: Five Opponents for Featherweight Debut

There are arguments for and against anyone’s training methods, but after talking to Giordano one can’t say he isn’t passionate. The man speaks with a sincere desire to help his athletes help themselves. To learn more about Giordano and his services, follow him on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter-you’ll get more than pretty pictures of food.