Six months to be reminded how he went away from his gameplan and let Dominick Cruz "dominate" him for five straight rounds in the first ever UFC bantamweight title fight.
After taking some much-needed time away from the cage to work on improving all the tiniest technical aspects of his game, he's ready to show the big boys how you win a "Fight of the Night" bonus as he takes on Ken Stone at The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 13 Finale on Saturday night (June 4, 2011).
"Young Guns" was recently a guest on Pro MMA Radio where he discussed his shortcomings in his last fight, the upcoming UFC bantamweight title fight between Cruz and Urijah Faber and his UFC debut on Saturday night.
Find out how Scotty thinks he'll get back on track after the jump.
Pro MMA Radio: Let's go back to the Cruz fight. I've seen you fight a lot of times Scott and that just didn't look like you that night. Tell me kinda what went on and what you felt went wrong because I know you to be a better fighter. Scott Jorgensen: Yeah I went out there and went away from my gameplan. I kinda got caught up in the fact that I thought I could knock him out. I thought I could land my right hand and you can't just bank on things like that against a tough guy, a tested opponent and hard to hit on top of that in Dominick. I thought I could count on that one big lucky punch and I got away from the one thing that got me where I'm at in life which is the belief that if you want something you have to earn it. You can't bank on luck. You have to earn it. That's how I made it through the last five fights before that, getting victories through tough fights and for some reason I thought when I stepped in the cage with Dominick, it would come easy. I had a great training camp and I didn't try to earn it. I thought I would catch him and I didn't. It serves as a reminder because it was a tough loss to take, being for the first ever UFC bantamweight championship.
Pro MMA Radio: Dominick's fighting Urijah Faber now. You've fought Dominick and you've sparred with Urijah. Who wins that fight and why?
Scott Jorgensen: There's a lot of reasons that I think Urijah's gonna win. Dominick is definitely evolved from the first time he fought Urijah, but Urijah's evolved a lot as well. The big one is that I think Urijah has a mental edge over him. It's Dominick's only loss and it was for a belt. They were both at 145 and now Urijah's coming down to 135 so it's not like the game's changed a whole lot. Dominick moves a lot more but Urijah's fast, explosive and dynamic. He's a smart fighter. He's been tested, he's been through battles and he's a lot like me. He's not gonna quit, he's not gonna roll over and just give up. Dominick's got a long road ahead of him. I think Urijah's gonna pull out the victory and who knows what's next for Urijah. I'd like to think that with a couple wins I'd get my title shot but we'll see.
Pro MMA Radio: Let's talk about the road back for Scotty Jorgensen. You're going to be making your UFC debut at the TUF finale. Do you think it's gonna be different now that you have those three letters on your gloves?
Scott Jorgensen: No. Gloves, shorts, that stuff's always changing. There's only one thing I can make sure doesn't and that's me. That's all I'm focused on. A lot of people are bringing up the fact that this is the first UFC event that I've fought on but I've already fought for the UFC. I've already fought for the biggest, most important thing in MMA, the UFC bantamweight championship, a UFC title. I've already fought for it. I've already been down that road and felt the most pressure that you can put on someone's shoulders and that's competing in MMA. I fought for the belt. This is just me getting back to being Scott Jorgensen and having fun. This is me doing what I do best and having an exciting fight and showing the UFC and the fans of the UFC what a fight's supposed to look like, what a real exciting fight is supposed to look like.
Pro MMA Radio: You fought four times in 2009, four times in 2010 and now basically this is like a full six months layoff after the title fight. That's long for you. Did you like the time off and How did you benefit from it? How did you use it?
Scott Jorgensen: Personally, I hate the time off. If you know me. anybody that knows me, I'll fight tomorrow and ask for a fight next week. I like doing what I do and sitting out sucks, but I learned a lot. I worked on technique, a lot of different finite things that I haven't had a chance to do being in training camp for the past two years so I worked on my ground game a lot and getting back to my roots with my takedowns, my wrestling and being more active in jiu-jitsu and trying to finish more things on the ground. I was just trying to get back to being me, enjoying life. I opened up a new gym here in Boise. We moved our older location which was an old gym to a brand new facility that includes a full-size cage and 2500 square feet of space. I've been doing that and getting this thing going and doing a lot of traveling. Six months off sucked but I'm ready to go.
Pro MMA Radio: Ok, well you've got Ken Stone coming up. Stone debuted in the WEC and he got slammed by Eddie Wineland. Thought he was doing ok before that but we've heard a lot of buzz coming into that fight for Stone. I'm assuming you've had a chance to look at some of his fights, get into his background a little bit. What are your impressions of him. Where do you see his strong points and weak points?
Scott Jorgensen: I really really haven't watched a lot of Ken Stone. That's one thing I'm not doing again. My last training camp for Dominick, everything was, "mimic Dominick, mimic Dominick, mimic Dominick! What did Dominick do? What did Dominick do?" It does not matter what my opponent does. I have to go out there and fight the way that I fight. I haven't really watched a lot on Ken Stone. I know he's a southpaw and he's got a little bit of a wrestling background. He's obviously got faith in his jiu-jitsu game. He tries some crazy stuff and he trains out of ATT. He tried to pull the guillotine, pull guard on Eddie so his jiu-jitsu game is tough. His wrestling is tough. He likes to throw low kicks inside and he'll try and bang a little bit. If you look at the stuff that matters, look at his record, who he's own against, who he's lost against. He's faced three guys with winning records and he's lost to two of 'em. You look at my record, I fight one of the toughest track records of opponents you could possibly have. I know where I've tested myself and I know where he's been tested. With Ken Stone, it's all about imposing my will and fighting my fight. I feel like I'm stronger, faster, more explosive and more dynamic. Bottom line is, I've fought through tougher things than he's ever thought of.
Pro MMA Radio: Where would you put your hunger for this fight given you've been out for six months, you're coming off a loss and you're making your UFC debut? Compare what it's like coming into this fight versus some of your fights in the past in the WEC.
Scott Jorgensen: This fight, the closest thing I can say is when I first lost to Antonio Banuelos or when I first lost to Damacio Page. I just want to get another win. This fight, itself, to me, I want to be back fighting for that belt. That's the first thing. Number two is I've developed a hate for that feeling I got after I lost that fight to Dominick. I relived that feeling for three days, every day, not even when they didn't raise my hand but for when that last bell rang. That hate, I just never want to feel that feeling again. Everything going into this fight, I want to win because I hate that feeling and I love the feeling of winning and I've got myself focused. I've got myself ready. I'm willing to go through hell, cuts, blood just to get that victory. I've committed to doing what I have to do to win which is fight my fight and be relentless. Push the pace beyond anything he's been through and I know for a fact that I'll get the victory. Looking at his opponents you can see he's never been pushed.
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