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Georges St-Pierre on Sometimes Being the Ant and Sometimes Being the Cockroach

UFC welterweight champion recently released his first book, The Way of the Fight. The book is an interesting read. St-Pierre could have taken the easy way out and written a fluff biography that did nothing but extol his greatness—God knows that t…

UFC welterweight champion recently released his first book, The Way of the Fight. The book is an interesting read. St-Pierre could have taken the easy way out and written a fluff biography that did nothing but extol his greatness—God knows that type of sports book has been written multiple times in the past—but he opted for a different approach.

The Way of the Fight comes across as part biography, part self-help and part philosophy, as St-Pierre involves the five most important people in his life in telling his story. St-Pierre told Bleacher Report, “This book is me talking about myself and the five people that have had the biggest influence on my life talking about my life.

“It’s not a biography, it not a book only for MMA hardcore fans, it about the tactics that I have used to meet my goals from where I started to where I am right now. I say right now because my career’s not finished yet.”

That career began in 2002, and since then St-Pierre has posted a record of 24-2 while becoming one of the greatest fighters the sport has ever seen. One thing that may have helped St-Pierre reach his lofty status was the advice of his father. When a young Georges wanted to quit karate, his father refused to allow that to happen, telling his son, “Don’t quit until you reach the end.”

St-Pierre’s view of his MMA career is that it is not near that point. “For my MMA career I want to be known as the best of the best, and right now I’m not there yet. I want to be the guy that makes a difference in the sport. I can still do a lot of things, and I still have a lot to do in my career.”

One thing that St-Pierre feels he has to do is continue to innovate as a mixed martial artist. This innovation is as much for his own growth as it is to prepare for his next opponent. “I work on getting better for myself and to find holes in my opponent’s game to take him out of his comfort zone. I work on myself, and I study my opponent, and I’m going to use my strength to take the fight to his weaknesses and fight where I’m at my strongest, but I have to work on myself as well.”

As he works to improve and prepare for his next opponent, St-Pierre knows he is at a disadvantage. “It’s hard to become champion, it even harder to stay champion.”

Many athletes have used that refrain in the past, so St-Pierre explained why that fact is true in his case. “One of the reasons is that I’m training for my next opponent, but all the guys that are contenders for my title are training every single day to beat the champion, to beat me.

“They’ve been preparing themselves for a long, long time. I’ve been on their mind for a long time. The person that been on my mind is my next opponent, but these fighters that are coming up through the ranks have been visualizing me, they’ve been seeing me inside their minds for a longer time than I have.”

St-Pierre prepares for his opponents by working harder than everyone else and adapting to changes as they come. In The Way of the Fight, interesting analogies are used when discussing these traits, namely ants and cockroaches.

When asked which of the insect analogies is most suitable for him, St-Pierre said, “I’m a little bit of both. The ant is always working, he never stops, that how I am in my life. I never waste a second of my life, I always do things that help me advance in my life.

“In other ways I’m like a cockroach. Sixty-five million years ago the dinosaurs died out. They were the strongest creatures that ever roamed the earth, but they were not able to adapt after the Cretaceous era. The cockroach did survive and adapt.

“It’s not always the strongest person that will survive that will adapt themselves at life. As the cockroach, I try and adapt myself to different environments in my life and also in my sport in order to evolve.”

In order to evolve, St-Pierre had to overcome what he says is both his biggest strength as well as his biggest weakness: his pride. “I’m a very proud person and that can be a strength and a weakness.”

St-Pierre first discussed how his pride was a weakness early in his career. “When I fought Matt Serra I got stunned in the fight by a punch, and instead of stepping back and focusing on getting back to my senses and not get into a war, when I got stunned I got so angry. I wanted to give it back to him right away, so I stepped into a slugfest with him, but I was already stunned, so my pride allowed me to lose the fight by TKO.”

As for how pride can be a strength, the UFC welterweight champion said, “How it can be a good thing, is that you can use your pride as a perseverance factor to overcome obstacles and grow from that.”

A great deal of The Way of the Fight focuses on the obstacles that St-Pierre has overcome during not just his MMA career but also his life. “All the obstacles that I faced made me the man that I am. But when you face an obstacle and overcome that obstacle, the next time you face a similar obstacle it will be easier to overcome.”

Which in a way harkens back to the words of his father: “Don’t quit until you reach the end.” You could say St-Pierre has followed that credo since that day.

**All quotes were obtained first hand unless otherwise noted.

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Joseph Benavidez: Focused on Progress, Not a Title Shot

Joseph Benavidez has every intention on staying the course toward another shot at the flyweight title, but he’s more than happy to take each step as it comes. The Team Alpha Male staple and number one contender to the 125-pound division has clearl…

Joseph Benavidez has every intention on staying the course toward another shot at the flyweight title, but he’s more than happy to take each step as it comes.

The Team Alpha Male staple and number one contender to the 125-pound division has clearly carved out his position atop the division. That being said, the Las Cruces native also understands there is only so much about the situation he can control, and Benavidez is content to put his focus on the things his hard work can directly effect and let the process of progress grind on.

Over the weekend at UFC on Fox 7 in San Jose, Benavidez put forth the best showing of his career, dominating highly regarded grappler Darren Uyenoyama. After controlling the striking and dictating the action in the first, Benavidez ended things in the second with a pair of measured, thunderous body shots that left Uyenoyama in a heap on the canvas.

While the victory put the 28-year-old at the front of the title race, Benavidez will not make it the primary focus at this time—and for good reason. The first go around at the flyweight strap consumed his world and he refuses to allow those conditions to materialize again. Nevertheless, Benavidez will stay on track and when that next title opportunity comes front and center, he’ll step into the challenge a better fighter than he was the last time out.

Until then, he’ll enjoy the fruits of what the hard work has afforded him.

“My progress is the only thing I want to control right now and that’s the most important thing to me,” Benavidez told Bleacher Report. “I’m having fun right now and every day I feel lucky and blessed I get to do this for a living. I’m going to continue to have fun with it, be grateful for what I have and make sure I enjoy it. I’m going to continue to work as hard as I can in the gym to make sure I’m getting better.

“I feel like I’m improving and I’m going to make sure what time I do have off, to make sure I enjoy it because I’ve earned it. I make sure to keep that perspective and to realize how lucky I am that this is my life and my lifestyle. To be able to go from such a negative place to seeing so many positive things is huge to me and I see that. I understand how far things have come and that’s why I’m able to put so much into this. That’s what I think about on my time off. And on my time in, I just think about improving.”

Since the unanimous decision loss to Demetrius Johnson at UFC 152 last September, Benavidez has locked his focus on improving his skills inside the cage. While signs of progression showed in his bout against Ian McCall at UFC 156, his skills appeared to be on another level against Uyenoyama last weekend at UFC on Fox 7 in San Jose.

The former title challenger gives full credit to his team of coaches and believes the fight against Uyenoyama was the next step in his road to becoming a more complete mixed martial artist.

“Darren is a good fighter,” Benavidez said. “He had two solid wins in the UFC coming into our fight and I knew he was going to be a tough opponent. But I was definitely on that night and it was probably a good matchup for me. He had one chance and that was to take me down and hold me there, which is probably the hardest thing to do to me.

“I felt good in the fight and it’s probably where I left off in my fight before that with McCall. I was starting to feel super loose and comfortable where it felt like a sparring session in the second and third round with McCall and things felt really good. I think I picked up from there against Darren. I had a major advantage with speed in my stand-up and once I started hitting him, it was just my night.

“I would never take anything away from him because he was the number eight guy in the division, but if I’m the number one contender in the division, that is what I’m supposed to do to the eighth ranked fighter. If I’m at the top of the division and truly deserve to be, that is what was supposed to happen when I fight the guy ranked in the eighth spot.”

While Benavidez has always had a solid wrestling pedigree to rely on, it has been his striking which has made the difference in his past two fights. The stand-up aspect of his skill set is where he’s put the most emphasis in his training and the hard work paid off in impressive fashion against Uyenoyama.

From the opening bell, Benavidez blended his speed and power together in seamless fashion as he battered his opponent around the Octagon. Ultimately it was a crushing body shot that sealed the deal and further proved Benavidez has some of the best power punches in the flyweight division.

“I definitely felt my power was making a difference,” Benavidez described about the fight last Saturday. “The punches that don’t knock you out are the ones you feel the most. The ones that knock you out, you never feel them and they just put you out. But the ones you get hit with that don’t knock you out, those wear on you. They wear on your mind and your confidence. They really start to wear you down. The punches that land start to sting and suck the life right out of you.

“My boxing coach Jimmy Gifford was telling me that as soon as I hit Darren, whether he blocked a kick or an overhand right, he was going to know. And I wanted to make sure he knew the power I was bringing on my feet. It is not even that I was trying to put a ton of power behind every shot, that’s just how I punch.

“I’ve been working under the tutelage of my coaches consistently now on throwing more straight punches,” Benavidez added. “I was hitting him with straight lefts and then mixing in the overhand instead of only coming in with my overhand which I have done in the past. I’m mixing up my kicks from high to low very well and it’s a product of my coaching. I work with Duane [Ludwig] day in and day out and I can obviously see those improvements.

“Those power shots were definitely taking a toll on him and messing with his mind, especially when he’s trying to take me to the ground and he can’t. Those punches suck when you can’t do anything about them. They aren’t putting you out and they are just hurting you every time they land. It breaks you down and I was able to accomplish that in this fight.”

The win in San Jose secured the number one contender spot for Benavidez in the eyes of the MMA community, but getting the next title shot isn’t an issue he’s concerned about pressing at this time. He is confident another opportunity will come, and if that process takes time to play out, then it is his job to continue winning fights and proving his worth in the 125-pound weight class.

Benavidez has learned to avoid an obsession with becoming a champion and put belief in the fact he will achieve his goals through the rigors of hard work. While earning a big victory often times can sweep a fighter up in the moment, Benavidez is a difficult man to move in that regard. He’ll take things as they come and in the meantime, continue to invest in the process of becoming the best fighter he can possibly be.

“As far as being in a rush for title shot, that hasn’t changed since my last fight,” Benavidez said. “After my title fight and putting so much emphasis on the end goal of winning the belt, I’ve been focused on switching up since then. Obviously becoming champion is always going to be my goal and something I want to accomplish, but I can’t control being the champion and winning and losing. You can’t control the result. All you can really control is the preparation, getting there and all the hard work you are going to put into the fight. You have to go out there and fight as hard as you can. You have to go out there and work as hard as you can and do the right things. Then you go out there and perform and either it’s good enough or it’s not. But you can’t control the result and make it good enough, you can only do everything you can to try to reach that result.

“My goal is to win the title but I can’t allow myself to think about it and want it so much because that is what messed me up in the last title fight. The biggest lesson I learned in that experience is that this isn’t life or death. I almost wanted it too bad. I had to wait so long in between my fight and the title fight because Demetrius [Johnson] and McCall and to fight again. It just wore on me. By the time I got in there all I had thought about was the result and I didn’t really fight as good as I could have.

“I didn’t have fun with it because I felt it was life or death. I can’t really have fun and be loose when I’m fighting like that. I lost and I didn’t die. I still had my health, family and people who loved me. It was fine and I learned a valuable lesson from that experience. My outlook now is that the title shot is going to come, but until then I’m going to do everything I can to keep getting better and be prepared when the opportunity arises.

“I’m ready for whenever it comes,” Benavidez added. “I’m not worried about it because I need to be ready for whenever I get in there and I can only get better until then. If they want me to fight another fight; I take that as an opportunity for me to get better. Honestly, if they want me to fight another guy and I lose, then I don’t really deserve to get the title shot anyway. That’s how I see it.

“Being the champion is still my goal but until that situation comes, I’m working as hard as I can to improve my skills and be a better fighter.”

Duane Finley is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. All quotes are obtained firsthand unless noted otherwise.

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UFC 160: Potential Title Shot Gives Gray Maynard Added Motivation

Gray Maynard was in attendance for this weekend’s UFC on Fox 7. The former title challenger was looking forward to the lightweight title fight in the main event between champion Benson Henderson and the last man to hold the Strikeforce 155-pound title,…

The two men were set to determine who would leave San Jose as the UFC champion, and Maynard figured it best to keep his eye on the situation in light of the title hunt he’s looking to revamp next month at UFC 160.

But before Henderson and Melendez could set about throwing fisticuffs in the HP Pavilion, Maynard’s newly minted fatherhood duties came to call. When his five-month-old daughter found the crowd to be overwhelming, “The Bully” turned on daddy mode, and the former No. 1 contender to the lightweight crown walked out of the arena without knowing who was going to lay claim to the 155-pound title.

The three-time All-American wrestler from Michigan State would hear the outcome of the main event at UFC on Fox 7 later on in the evening, but that isn’t what stoked the fires of motivation. That element came when UFC president Dana White told the media in the post-fight press conference that the winner of Maynard’s bout with T.J. Grant next month at UFC 160 would determine who gets the next opportunity to fight for the lightweight title.

Maynard has been looking to get back into the title hunt since coming up short in his classic series of battles with Frankie Edgar. Now, the road ahead is set, but before he can put Henderson in his sights, there is a scrap with a surging contender in Grant he has to deal with—one that White’s announcement provided extra motivation for.

“Hearing about the chance to get the title shot fired me up,” Maynard told Bleacher Report in an exclusive interview. “I’m right at that point in my camp where the work is the hardest and the fight still seems so far away. But hearing that I can earn a title shot by beating Grant provides that extra bit of kick and I’m pumped up about it. I was looking forward to fighting T.J. already but now the fight means just a little bit more. It’s perfect timing, man. It’s a great opportunity and I’m hungry to get back to that belt.”

His opponent next month at UFC 160 has been on a tear since dropping down into the lightweight division. Grant has collected four consecutive victories as he’s made his way up the divisional rankings, with his most impressive victory coming against Maynard’s season five The Ultimate Fighter housemate Matt Wiman back in January at UFC on Fox 6.

In the fight, the scrappy Canadian bullied Wiman around the Octagon before dropping him with a brutal series of standing elbows against the cage. The victory carved out Grant’s place as one of the top 155-pound fighters in the weight class and guaranteed him a high-profile opponent in his next outing. That challenge will come against Maynard, who is a staple in the upper tier of the division, and will now prove who is the next worthy opponent to square off with Henderson later this year.

“I think Grant is a tough kid,” Maynard said. “He’s big and strong and comes to brawl. I’ve noticed with his fights he adds a few new things every time out, but he always seems to get better at the things he does well. We are looking at a few of the holes in his game and looking to capitalize on them.

“He sticks to his game. If you look at his last fight—I like Wiman a lot—but it doesn’t look like he put a ton of effort into his planning for the T.J. bout. Matt is a tough kid and tends to go off that a lot. He went in there and got into a brawl and you have to be prepared for everything when you are facing an opponent like Grant.

“I think Grant really believes he has good stand-up. He’s good on the ground, but he likes to stand and strike. He believes in that aspect of his game and that’s OK. Training at AKA has added a few more tools to my game, but I truly believe I’m one of the hardest hitters—if not the hardest—in the lightweight division. I like to go everywhere in a fight, but if he wants to scrap it out on the feet, I don’t have a problem with that.

“I’m hungry, man,” Maynard added. “It’s been a long layoff. These past two years have been off and on, but I have been traveling and in the gym learning new things. I’m coming back hungry to get back to the top of this division and go after that title. Grant is a tough opponent and I’m training hard for him. I’m hungry and people are going to see that next month in Las Vegas.”

Duane Finley is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. All quotes are obtained firsthand unless noted otherwise.

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UFC on Fox 7: The Reinvention of Frank Mir

Frank Mir isn’t ready to be just another fighter competing in the UFC heavyweight division.As a former two-time champion and with a career spent in the elite tier of his weight class, it would be easy for Mir to downshift. The Las Vegas-native has been…

Frank Mir isn’t ready to be just another fighter competing in the UFC heavyweight division.

As a former two-time champion and with a career spent in the elite tier of his weight class, it would be easy for Mir to downshift. The Las Vegas-native has been a fixture in the heavyweight hierarchy under the UFC banner for nearly a decade, and the option of competing in “fan friendly” fights would certainly be well within his grasp.

But that’s not who Mir is. More to the point—that is precisely who Mir refuses to be. The 33-year-old is willing to make the sacrifices and shifts in his approach to ensure the process of progress roles on.

That includes breaking from his comfort zone at home in Las Vegas to spend his training camp in Albuquerque preparing for his showdown with Daniel Cormier at UFC on Fox 7.

In New Mexico, Mir would put his training in the hands and mind of master strategist Greg Jackson. While the relocation to Jackson’s sounds easy in theory, the move would come with the uncertainty of a new environment and an entirely new cast of training partners to test him on a daily basis.

When the rigorous adjustment of training at 5,000-feet altitude is factored in, it becomes crystal clear there is nothing about this stage of Mir’s career he takes lightly, and he is out to prove there is a legitimate reinvention in process.

“Coming off a loss in my last fight, I was looking at what I could do differently to keep my career moving in a positive direction,” Mir told Bleacher Report. “One of the things that we looked at was during my training camps—eight or nine weeks out from a fight—I would separate myself from being a father and a husband so much. Come home on the weekends but basically had to camp during the week. The realistic idea of pulling that off while still in Las Vegas was just very unlikely and we started looking to train outside of Vegas.

“Obviously there are many great camps and coaches who are successful and of great merit, but I’ve always had a personal interest in training with Greg Jackson. I’ve always thought so highly of him. I had a huge interest to pick his brain and to go to his camp to see what was going on.

“I was very impressed and was very happy with how camp went. It’s one thing to hear how great something is going to be but then actually seeing the intricate makings, how it actually works, and how he thinks about things and breaks them down. It was very impressive.

“It’s definitely an improvement and a step forward in the right direction,” Mir added. “I think training at Jackson’s is the biggest step or change I’ve made in my entire career. I’ve changed out coaches and training partners, but I’ve never actually left to go to a camp for a fight. It’s one of the biggest changes I’ve made in my career and I hope to see the best results from it.”

Mir will have the opportunity to test his recent improvements this weekend when he squares off with Cormier. Aside from the bout featuring two of the best heavyweights in the world, a war of words in the pre-fight build-up has served to add attention to the card’s co-main event and guaranteed the matchup between the former champion and the Strikeforce Grand Prix winner will be a high-profile heavyweight tilt.

The Louisiana native’s arrival in the UFC comes equipped with a tremendous amount of expectation as potential title talk in two weight classes is already swirling around the former Olympian. Despite the bout being Cormier‘s first showing on the sport’s biggest stage, the AKA-trained fighter is the favorite going into the fight, where his wrestling and ever-evolving striking skills are figured to be the deciding factors.

Mir understands the predictions and breakdowns from analysts around the sport and hopes his opponent shares a similar mindset with the talking heads in MMA.

“I go out there and knock out Mirko Cro Cop and Cheick Kongo—who are great strikers—but lose a stand-up fight to dos Santos and now I’m back to being just a jiu-jitsu guy,” Mir said. “That’s just the way it is. There are so many fighters out there and I don’t expect people to study my complete career. I think when analysts are breaking down a fight, the first main thought that comes up about a guy is his last performance. It’s understandable people forget that I can strike. I am kind of hoping Cormier has as well.

“Time will tell,” Mir added in regard to how Cormier will handle his UFC debut. “It’s really a hard question to answer because he has experience competing at an international level, but obviously—as far as exposure—the events he’s competed in are nowhere near as widely broadcast as a UFC event. I have to think the most people who have ever watched him perform as an athlete will be this Saturday.

“How he is going to respond to that? I don’t know. I’ve seen it go both ways where some guys rise to the occasion, but more often than not I see guys crumble under the stress. He’s fighting in his hometown. He’s the favorite and everyone expects great things from him. Basically, he has nowhere to go but down at this point.”

While there are questions and pressure surrounding Cormier‘s promotional debut, the bout holds a great deal of importance for Mir as well. He has been a staple in the heavyweight title picture over the past several years, and a win on Saturday night would keep him in the hunt for UFC gold. On the other hand, a loss to Cormier would certainly put that position in jeopardy and potentially knock Mir out of the division’s upper-tier for the first time in his career.

“No, not really,” Mir responded when asked about pressure. “There is always pressure to win every fight. Right now I’m going out there to perform well and show the merits of my decision to go train in Albuquerque. I want to show an improved version of myself. Beyond that, I can’t really control the outcome. If I’m unsuccessful, it’s a step back in my career as far as going to the back of the line to go fight for the title. But that being said, in the heavyweight division, once you string two or three wins together it’s easy to get back to title contention.”

When the cage door closes this weekend in San Jose, the time will come for Mir to make a stand on multiple fronts. In one aspect, he’s fighting for his place in the divisional title hunt, but on the other side of the coin, Mir is also looking to validate his efforts for reinvention.

Mir has spent over a decade competing at the sport’s highest level and is determined to prove it is a place he still belongs. That being said, Mir is also very much aware of the clock that is ticking on his career and wants to make sure he left nothing on the table when it is all said and done.

For everything he’s accomplished in the sport and the sacrifices he’s made to reach championship levels, the fight with Cormier is the chance to prove the new sacrifices and changes made were all worthwhile.

“I realize I have been fighting now for almost 12 years in the UFC,” Mir said. “I’m not going to fight for another 12 years so to say I’m more than halfway through or towards the end of my career is probably a pretty intelligent observation. I want to make sure every opportunity I have to step into the Octagon I have improved and gotten better. I realize the road is starting to come to an end, and I want to go out there and make sure I don’t leave any questions left over in my mind. I think it’s kind of sad when you sit there after your career is over and wonder what things would have been like if you had done this or that. I just want to try to silence those ‘what ifs’ and make sure I’m content with the amount of effort I put towards my career.”

Duane Finley is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. All quotes are obtained firsthand unless noted otherwise.

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Sam King Hopes This Is Just the Beginning

Sam King sees himself someday making his living in the world of mixed martial arts.”I hope to go all the way to the top,” the 21-year-old Regina product says. “It’s a big dream, but I hope to accomplish it someday.”There is nothing that King would rath…

Sam King sees himself someday making his living in the world of mixed martial arts.

“I hope to go all the way to the top,” the 21-year-old Regina product says. “It’s a big dream, but I hope to accomplish it someday.”

There is nothing that King would rather do than make his living in MMA. Most everything he has done since first stepping foot in AJ Scales’ Complete Martial Arts and Fitness more than three years ago has been done with that end in mind.

King’s work, it is safe to say, hasn’t been done in vain.

Since King made his amateur debut in December of 2011—a first-round knockout in Regina–he is undefeated through four outings, all stoppages.

King, who trains six days a week under Scales, a black belt under the Nova Uniao banner, is neither surprised nor satisfied with what he’s accomplished.

King’s next bout is to be against a yet-to-be-determined opponent at Saturday Night Fights 7 on May 11 in Regina. The bout—which will likely serve as the card’s main event—is to also serve as a semifinal for the promotion’s inaugural featherweight championship tournament.

King hopes to claim his first title belt later this year—and he likes his odds in the tournament. But King, whom Scales calls a “little beast,” is confident that this is just another stepping stone in his career.

Why?

“I’m confident that everything will work out if I do everything right,” the undefeated featherweight says. “I would say I’m on a good course right now. I really have no need to change anything right now.”

Ed Kapp is a Regina, Saskatchewan-based freelance journalist. Unless otherwise noted, all quotations were obtained firsthand.

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Scott Jorgensen on Playing Spoiler & Teaching Joe Warren How to Facebook

As a writer who has made a career out of doing interviews and features, I have come to learn catching fighters during fight week and in the middle of their weight cut, as something to be avoided if possible. Unfortunately with the hectic schedule …

Unfortunately with the hectic schedule of recent years, sometimes fight week is the only opening available, and the only chance you will have to get the quotes you need.

Before the interview ever takes place, you know the fighter you are about to speak with has been asked a variation of the same 10 questions over and over, and is heading into your phone call dreading hearing those questions asked one more time save for a different voice on the line.

As writers, we understand the reality of this situation but the pre-fight interview is a necessary evil. That being said, this time around I wanted to try something different. I wanted to pick a fighter on the fight week schedule for this weekend’s TUF 17 Finale and go off the beaten path.

The hope is that the subject of the interview will find this unique batch of questions as a breath of fresh air and have a bit of fun in the process.

I’m not sure if this will be a regular feature going forward, but in the spirit of traveling new avenues, I wanted to at least give it one go around the block.

For our first journey into outer space, I chose Scott Jorgensen. The Idaho-based fighter is set to throw down with Urijah Faber in the main event on Saturday night, and I imagined by the time I reached Scott on the phone, every aspect of every story line heading into the fight had been covered.

Another aspect of this feature I believe is worth noting is the Q & A style presentation. While I favor the narrative form of interview-based features, because these topics have a drastic amount of variety, I figured the Q & A format would be the best way to guide the reader through the journey.

I have seen a few of the things you’ve posted on Facebook and Twitter that lead me to believe you are a Charles Bronson fan. Am I accurate in believing this to be the case?

(Laughs) Yeah not really too much. We just get a kick out of it. My coach Mark Montoya and I were at a fight for Joe Warren up in Ohio and I grew this little mustache. He told me I looked like Bronson and started calling me Chuck. It went from there man and turned into its own little monster.

I have seen a few variations of the Jorgensen mustache and I was wondering if you could get to that steely Bronson level.

My facial hair game is pretty weak. I don’t think it is something I could pull off.

But your ink game is solid and that has to make up for what you mustache game lacks, at least in some form of fashion; would you agree?

Yeah, my tattoo game is strong and I have a lot of good things going on in that department.

I wanted to stick with the Bronson theme for one more question. Bronson is a classic anti-hero and in the bantamweight division, there are a lot of baby-faced hero types. There is Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber but the division is lacking a good anti-hero. Can Scott Jorgensen be the anti-hero the bantamweight division desperately needs?

I’m going to play spoiler on Saturday and if that is your anti-hero, then I’m definitely going to be it. I know a lot of people are giving me no chance to win this fight. Everybody loves Urijah and I’m going in there to play spoiler.

I saw that you recently became engaged, so congrats on taking that leap so to speak.

Thank you very much…I think. I’m kidding, by the way.

As a married man myself, I know the left hand gets a little heavier once you put that ring on. You have knockout power as is but are you expecting to have a little more power in your left hand after carrying the weight of your wedding ring?

I do expect to develop a bit more power in my left. My power hand is my right and it should balance everything out.

This fight came together short and quick and you are not getting a ton of due in the media as far as your chances to win on Saturday. What are your thoughts on the matchup?

We are going to go out there and fight. I don’t care what other people think. I’ve never cared at any time in my career what the media thinks. I just know people think Urijah is great and he’s so far above me, but he’s not.

When this fight starts, and they close that door and ring that bell, we are going to meet up in the middle and the fight will go from there. A fight is a fight and you can’t predict how it will go. Especially against a guy like Urijah. He’s wild and he scrambles, but I do too.

We are going to end up in some wild and crazy positions. I haven’t made any predictions in my head on how this fight is going to go. I’m coming in there with a clean slate and ready for whatever happens.

I know former Bellator champion and former Olympian Joe Warren is a close friend and training partner of yours, but I saw on Facebook you are starting a “I hate Joe Warren” campaign. Would you like to use this platform to further that message?

Yeah Joe is getting pretty frustrated. He finally created his first Facebook and it’s a personal account, not a fan page. It’s one where you can accept friends or deny them. He’s recently become very annoyed by it and is wondering how people are finding him on there.

Our jiu-jitsu coach and I have taken it upon ourselves to gather him some friends. We are encouraging people to go find Joe Warren’s personal page and send him messages, friend requests, poke him or whatever.

We want to aggravate him as much as possible. He is already threatening to shut his page down because he doesn’t understand how all of these people are getting his name and finding him on Facebook. It’s been pretty funny so far.

There you have it, folks.

Take a little bit of time out of your day and send a message to “The Baddest Man on the Planet” if you get the chance. Also, make sure you tune in to watch Faber and Jorgensen scrap it out in the main event of the TUF 17 Finale on Saturday night, where the winner will get one step closer to a shot at the UFC bantamweight title.

Duane Finley is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. All quotes are obtained firsthand unless noted otherwise.

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