Jamie Varner's public weight cut

This Twitter thing, it's interesting, huh? 

Well, maybe not interesting, but certainly somewhat voyeuristic. Take, for example, former WEC lightweight champion Jamie Varner. He fights Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone at WEC 51 on Thursday night.

For the past four days, he has kept his fans and Twitter followers (@jamievarner) abreast of his weight en route to cutting down to 156 pounds by today (Wednesday).

It can't be easy -- or fun -- to have to drop 17 pounds in four days, but that's what he's doing. Or at least that's what he's tweeting. Have a look:

Hey everyone my weight is about 173 so I got some work to do! I'll hit up my first work out in about 30 min!
9:23 PM Sep 26th

@joia01 lost 4 pounds hit 169 should hit 165 tomorrow!
Mon Sep 27 03:15:31 2010  in reply to joia01

Just finished a grappling session with George roop should be able to hit my goal of 165 tonight!
Mon Sep 27 16:58:18 2010

Down to 165.5 im only 9.5lbs away from my scratch weight so things are looking up!
Tue Sep 28 00:11:34 2010

Woke up this morning at 165.5 still 9.5 pounds away from weight! Goal is 160 today so 5.5 pounds away gotta get to work!
Tue Sep 28 14:23:58 2010

Got the weight down to 162 I have one more training session tonight to get it under 160 then smooth sailing tomorrow!
about 20 hours ago

Hit 160.5 tonight will make the final push to 156 tomorrow! Feel great Donald is in serious trouble http://yfrog.com/ngp1hj
about 16 hours ago

Cutting weight sucks! Can't wait for this ---- to be over so I can have my life back! I love food and water;)
about 12 hours ago

I got 5 to go today I weigh 161 so I'll start the last of my cut in about a hour! This is gonna suck but it's almost over!
about 3 hours ago via
 

Will Varner make it to 156 (fighters are allowed to be within a pound of the limit)? Watch the WEC 51 weigh-ins live tonight at 7 p.m. EDT in the video player below. The Urijah Faber Q&A starts at 6 p.m., too.