WEC 53: Scott Jorgensen, “A Champion Should Fight Like a Champion”

Scott Jorgensen

Scott Jorgensen could have gotten a WEC title shot in his last fight, but the organization opted to give the equally deserving Joseph Benavidez a crack at champion Dominick Cruz first. Now, Jorgensen gets his opportunity to become the first UFC bantamweight champion.

“I guess good things come to those who wait,” Jorgensen told MMAWeekly.com.

He could have sat out and waited to face the winner, but decided to risk it all and face Brad Pickett on the same WEC 50 card headlined by Cruz and Benavidez.

“I had the option to sit out and wait for the winner of Dominick and Joseph, and I chose to fight, and I didn’t take an easy opponent. I took a top guy and dismantled him. Now, it just works out that the UFC bantamweight championship is what I’m fighting for now,” said the 28-year-old.

Cruz has faced similar fighters as Jorgensen in the past, wrestlers with good striking and powerful punches, but they’re not Scott Jorgensen.

“There’s always been that talk of Joseph’s a great wrestler, Brian Bowles is a great wrestler, even Uriah Faber’s a great wrestler. They all are. They’re good wrestlers. Urijah’s got the most credentials next to me, but when you look at my credentials and you look at Dominick’s and you start matching up across the board, the experience level, the level of competition, what I’ve done in my career in wrestling, it far exceeds everybody in my weight class,” said the challenger.

Jorgensen’s wrestling pedigree is impressive. He began wrestling in the third grade and continued through college becoming a three-time Pac-10 champion at Boise State University. But Jorgensen has transformed into a complete fighter. He’s not just a wrestler anymore.

“There’s nobody else like me. The catch to that is I’ve built my stand-up over the last few years to where I can hang with the best strikers in the world, and I’ve done it. That’s the difference between what Dominick’s got to face in me versus what he’s faced in Brian Bowles or Joseph Benavidez or even Urijah Faber,” stated Jorgensen.

“I can change the game very quickly with a takedown or stopping a takedown. If he wants to take me to the ground and not keep it standing, it’s not his fight anymore. It’s my fight. If he wants to keep it standing and I take him to the ground, it’s my fight still, not his fight. That’s how I’ve fought my last 10 fights,” he added.

“I don’t fight another person’s fight. I fight my fight. I adapt very quick. I’m a very fast learner, and I can learn on the fly. Whatever Dominick wants to do or whatever he wants to change; he can change all he wants from the last time that he fought because I haven’t watched that fight except for when I sat in the stands. I go in there with a clean slate that’s only filled with what I want to do and how I want to fight. It’s not really a knock on Dominick’s style. I just don’t feel it’s very effective when it comes to fighting me.”

When Jorgensen steps into the WEC cage at the promotions last event at WEC 53, he’s fighting for the title, but titles don’t mean that much to him. He’s out to prove he’s the best in the world.

“Titles are temporary. They don’t define me. They’ll definitely make myself more visible to the public and all of that, but the bottom line is, if I want to be the best in the world, if the UFC wants the most exciting champion they can have, I’m going to win that belt,” said the Utah native.

“I’m going to not just do it for myself, but I’m going to win this fight to prove a point that a champion should fight like a champion and not hold anything back,” continued Jorgensen. “This fight is just another way to go out there and do that and prove my point for myself that I’m the baddest dude in the world.

“This fight with Dominick is just another fight to me. It’s a big fight. It’s an important fight, and I’m going to win it.”