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 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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