Levittown's Gian Villante makes weight for Strikeforce bout

He looked down, saw the empty fast food wrapper in the garbage can inside the gym's office and felt the pain.

"That's not even fair," Gian Villante said last Saturday.

Fighters can get ornery in the final days while ridding their body of calorie after calorie in effort to make weight. He's eating vegetables and small portions of healthy things, and those around him are scarfing down burgers, fries and shakes. Look out!

“This is the way I get when it’s starting to get close," said Villante, 26, after a light workout with trainer Keith Trimble at Bellmore Kickboxing Academy. "I’m getting irritable and the workouts are starting to stink. This has been a full training camp, and at the end you’re supposed to feel like ‘OK, I wanna fight already.’”

That "already" is just about here as Villante made weight (205 pounds) Friday evening and will fight Derrick Mehmen (205) on the undercard at Strikeforce. Prelims begin at 8 p.m. ET on Showtime Extreme, and the main card moves to Showtime at 10 p.m.

Villante began his MMA career on the smaller side of heavyweight. He typically fought at around 225 pounds, and as you move up the MMA ladder, that just won't cut it against those at the upper-end of the 265-pound weight limit.

So the Levittown-based fighter dropped to light heavyweight where he actually has to cut weight. Finally.

SEE PHOTOSGian Villante

“I never had to," said the former All-American wrestler at MacArthur High School and 2003 state champion at 215 pounds. "I always had to gain weight, so I guess it’s coming to bite me back.”

Hey, a big enough bite and it becomes even easier to make weight, right?