Healthy living is key for UFC 246 light heavyweight Justin Ledet, who goes as far as making his own soap, and avoiding deodorant.
Light heavyweight Justin Ledet (9-2, 1NC) returns to the octagon next weekend at UFC 246, where he’ll take on Aleksa Camur in the featured preliminary fight on UFC Fight Pass. It will be Ledet’s first appearance since a February 2020 loss to Johnny Walker, and a fight Ledet knows is crucial. For both himself, and newcomer Camur.
It’s been an interesting run thus far for Ledet, who returned to 205lbs in 2018 despite a three-fight win streak in the UFC’s heavyweight division.
Despite his success at heavyweight, and a pair of losses at 205lbs, Ledet simply feels better as a light heavyweight. “I’m on a really good, healthy plant-based diet. I keep active. So I walk around at 220, I hardly ever get over 220, 225,” he told Cageside Press recently. Not too much of a cut at all, really.
Ledet has been on the diet ever since he dropped to light heavyweight, about two and a half years ago. “I have meat, but it’s maybe like once a week, maybe once every two weeks. It’s not a big part of my diet. It’s nothing like I’m really strict on. I just feel better, at this weight I feel better and healthier.”
And rather than a diet, Ledet sees it as more of “just a whole lifestyle change. It’s not just a diet change, for me it’s just a whole holistic way of living.”
To understand Ledet’s lifestyle, you need to look back to his 2017 sanction from USADA. Like numerous other UFC athletes, Ledet ran afoul of the anti-doping agency thanks to a tainted supplement. Luckily, USADA was able to pinpoint the contaminated supplement, which allowed Ledet to continue on with his career without too much of an interruption.
But the incident certainly changed how he approached everything he puts in, and on, his body. “I pretty much don’t use any pharmaceutical products, I don’t use any store bought products. I make my own soap, I make my own lotions, all home made,” he explained.
So is Justin Ledet the Tyler Durden of the UFC? Not quite. There’s no midnight excursions to the liposuction clinic, for one. Rather, with Ledet’s soap, “it’s just three products: coconut oil that you pick up from the store, organic lye that I order online, and olive oil and essential oils. That’s all I use.”
Then there’s your other daily personal hygiene products. “I also make my own toothpaste, without fluoride,” Ledet added. “I haven’t worn deodorant in like two years. People tell me all the time, they’re like ‘man, how come you don’t wear deodorant, but you don’t have no body odor?’ Because of the clean diet. If you’re eating clean, you sweat out clean.”
“It all really happened for me after that USADA stuff,” he continued. It became a matter of trust with manufacturers. “Once I got popped for that for that tainted supplement, and then I started doing research on what I eat, I was like ‘man, they’re putting all this sh*t in the stuff we eat, that they say they’re putting in it, but they’re not.'” From there, it led Ledet to branching out and looking at just about anything he put in or on his body.
The bottom line, “If I don’t know what’s going in it, then I don’t touch it,” he said.
At UFC 246, Ledet will go up against a promising newcomer. Aleksa Camur is an undefeated fighter with a 100% finishing rate. He’s a Contender Series winner, and the PPV card will mark his UFC debut.
Fighting an opponent with a full five UFC bouts and a winning record inside the octagon might seem like a tall order. But Ledet understands that any opponent can be dangerous, and isn’t ready to dismiss the newcomer
“I don’t know. I don’t know the guy, honestly I haven’t looked up any film on him,” he revealed. “I don’t really look up film on any of my opponents. But we’ll see when we get there. It’s a big card for both of us. This is the first time I’ve been on a PPV card, first time fighting at the T-Mobile Arena. Conor’s going to be on the card, it’s going to be pandemonium.”
Ledet vs. Camur takes place on the preliminary portion of UFC 246, on Saturday, January 18, 2020. The bout will air on UFC Fight Pass ahead of the televised prelims and PPV card. Watch our full interview with Justin Ledet above!
