The Dan Downes diet: Lose 22.5 pounds in three days

By Brett Okamoto

Monday, July 12, 2010 | 11:24 p.m.

Pat Barry gained some fame in mixed martial arts when it came out that he ate nothing but rice and ketchup leading up to his UFC heavyweight fight with Antoni Hardonk in October.

To Barry's teammate Dan Downes, rice and ketchup probably sounds like a buffet compared to what he recently ate.

Serving as a late replacement for the injured Ed Ratcliff on last month's WEC 49 card in Edmonton, Alberta, Downes ate nothing but plain leaf lettuce to help him drop 22.5 pounds in three days.

It was a fairly simple diet — one he's willing to copyright if times ever get tough.

"If the fighting thing doesn't work out I can write a dieting book," Downes said. "'How to lose 22 pounds in three days.'"

Downes (6-1) ended up losing the June 20 fight, his first in the WEC, to Chris Horodecki (14-2) in a third-round submission — but his willingness to accept it undoubtedly has won him fans both in and out of the organization.

The Milwaukee-based fighter admitted that he could have been found drinking beer at a bar, watching the World Cup and weighing a hefty 178 pounds just eight days before facing Horodecki.

But when the WEC called him the Tuesday before the fight and asked if he'd be willing to help them out, Downes felt he couldn't say no.

"It's not like I was the WEC's last hope. They're the WEC," Downes said. "They were going to find somebody to do it. If I had said, 'No,' who knows when they would have called me next?

"And as ridiculous as it sounds, I really thought I was going to win the fight. I know there was a lot stacked up against me. I was overweight, hadn't trained and the fight was in his backyard. But I really didn't go in there thinking I'd just lose. A lot of people thought I'd lay down, but that wasn't the case."

Downes said he agreed to the fight without even knowing exactly how much weight he'd have to lose.

Standing on the scale back at the gym with '178' staring back at him, Downes snuck a glance at teammate Eric Schafer.

"I looked at him and said, 'Is this even humanly possible?'" Downes said. "He told me, 'I guess it's possible.' That's all I needed to hear. I just decided to go for it."

The fight offered a first glimpse of Downes for most MMA fans. Until WEC 49, all of his professional fights had been on smaller cards in Wisconsin.

The 24-year-old fighter began training with Duke Roufus in 2004, during his freshman year at Marquette University.

By 2008, Downes had decided to see how far a career in MMA could take him. The hardest part was breaking the news to his parents, who hadn't even allowed him to compete in karate as a child.

"I went to lunch with Duke one day and asked him, 'Can I do this?'" Downes said. "He said, 'Yes,' so then I had a nice dinner with my parents. I told them, 'You know what? I don't think I'm going to law school anymore.'

"They thought I was delusional at first, but now they really support me."

As happy as Downes is that he was able to show off his heart in his first fight under the spotlight, he's eager to prove he can do more than lose weight and hang in there during a tough fight.

Although he makes no excuses for losing to Horodecki, he knows that the exhausting weight-cut left him at less than his best.

"Even though I did earn respect in that fight, I still think people might just think I'm tough," Downes said. "Like, 'He's a bad fighter, but he sure is tough.' I just need to show them my technical side now."

After performing well against a top-tier fighter with an all-lettuce diet, Downes certainly feels he has what it takes to his career with the WEC a long one.

"It's always disappointing when you lose," Downes said. "But the one positive thing I walked away from was that I feel like I can hang there. It was obviously a big step up in competition for me and, even with no training camp, I didn't feel like I didn't belong. I'm definitely in the right spot."

Brett Okamoto can be reached at 948-7817 or [email protected].