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I missed the last episode of The Ultimate Fighter 2, so I’m not perfect! It’s not going to stop me from getting back into the octagon, so to speak. I got caught up very quickly with the showboating controversy from Rashad’s win during the last episode. I have to agree with Matt Hughes on his view; having only watched the highlights of the fight, I knew it was not a fight I would like to watch.

Where Randy Couture and Chuck Lidell’s coaching methods were not the focus of last season, Ultimate Fighter 2 has been making up for this oversight this season. There are more stories about the contrasting styles of Matt Hughes and Rich Franklin. We get to see Rich chill out by the pool with his team. Matt opts to put his team through the paces to “make up for Tom’s lack of effort” in the last episode.

Couture devises another relatable challenge called Scarecrow. The challenge was for a welterweight to revolve as many times as possible around a heavyweight’s body without touching the ground. The welterweights had to hug and stay tight to the heavyweight. It was explained that this drill is derived from Jiu-Jitsu training. The first sign true strategy implemented was Rich Franklin allowing Team Hughes to expand all their welterweights’ energy to achieve an amazing 204 revolutions in 2 hours. Team Franklin then proceeded to forfeit the challenge in order to keep their welterweights fresh for the fight. What a genius move on the part of Rich Franklin!

There was some controversy about Matt allowing Joe Stevenson to taunt Jorge while he was doing the scarecrow challenge. I feel that Joe’s taunting wasn’t necessarily at the same level as Rashad’s showboating, but it was not sportsmanlike nevertheless. Doing what Rashad did in the ring is really disrespectful in the arena of a fight. Performing an individual challenge has always involved quibs from opposing teams but nobody has done what Rashad did, ever since I started watching fighting competitions (well…maybe boxer Nasim Hamed).

“He’s not great in the practice room, but when it comes out on the ring, I think he will do fine.” This Matt Hughes’ statement proves that he was basically feeding Jason Von Flue to the lions. He could not be more candid when he stated that “if he were to chance losing a fighter, he would chance losing Jason”. Honestly, I do not want to be coached by such a trainer. It was a disgusting show of competitiveness taken over the edge. There was then really no point to Matt wanting to winning the challenge competition.

I gained more respect for how Jason Von Flue handled this challenge. He does realize that he wouldn’t be deserving of a UFC contract if he did not meet Jorge in the ring. Going into the fight, Jason was a decidedly a big underdog to win the match.

The bell rang. The fighters exchanged a few stand-up blows, when Jason shot in for a take down. Jorge reversed away from the cage to end up in a netural side mount. Jason stood up as Jorge gave too much space shifting for a better position. Jason was starting to bleed over the right eye, got hurt with a few Jorge flurries and back pedaled. Jorge climbed his back to drag him down to the floor for a rear choke attempt. Jason Von Flue showed much heart toughing out the clock to last the round.

Jorge seems to allow himself to be pushed to the ground to trap Jason, who muscled out of a triangle choke attempt. When they stood up again, Jason got more confident and really did well landing a few clean kicks and punches on Jorge. I was really surprised because I saw the mouth piece fly out of Jorge ‘s mouth earlier, but the referee did not stop the fight until 1 minute later.

Jorge did not fight a smart fight. He was the visible agressor with submission attempts on the ground, but chose to fight a stand up fight. Jorge would rather, in his words, “please the crowd”. Eventually, the stand up scrap ended with Jorge’s knee buckling, landing on his back. Jason’s height and reach advantage helped him land clean shots while he was standing over Jorge guard. They said Jorge was a six year pro in Muay Thai but he was not able to defend against simple clinches and knee attempts in the stand up.

At the end of the second round, I figured Jason was leading the score cards slightly though the first round went to Jorge. Jorge remarked that his bad knee popped twice. This was turning out to be a different fight than I imagined. The X Factor was the heart that Jason Von Flue displayed to compensate for his skill.

Fists were flying in the third round. Jorge’s smaller frame was a big disadvantage. His punches were no longer powerful and he was still getting hit with clean shots to the face and knees to the body; sometimes knees to the head. With one minute left in the fight, I felt Jason would win the decision. Jorge attempted a late flurry, but his punches were not hurting Jason. The turning point of the fight occured when Jason realized that in the clinch position, he was able to dictate the fight by controlling Jorge. His size and strength allowed him to control the head, and whenever the head goes, the body will follow.

Unfortunately, we will never know how a 100% Jorge will fare in the octagon, he lost the eventual judges’ decision. I do have to question Jorge’s credentials, it’s not how long in years you’ve been doing something that makes you an expert, but how many hours. You can be a pilot for 10 years but how many flight hours have you logged? I may be bold in questioning Jorge’s credentials, but he certainly did not act like a Thai fighter in that octagon – he was not able to defend the clinch. Jorge’s various attempts at armbars and chokes on the ground were not that of a jiu-jitsu black belt’s caliber. I have long preached that belts only mean you were able to pass tests.

Congratulations to Jason Von Flue for proving all the doubters wrong – including his coach and myself. Now that the Jorge saga for the welterweight divison is over, I only have to look forward to seeing my dark horse pick, Luke Cuomo making it all the way to the end.

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