UFC 143 Preview – Renan Barao vs Scott Jorgensen

If you ever need an MMA trivia question, here is one: Who was involved in the first UFC championship fight that aired on live cable television? The answer: Dominick Cruz vs Scott Jorgensen. This would be a neat trick question as most people would answer Jackson-Henderson which was not aired live but on tape delay. Also, Cruz-Jorgensen was interesting since it was the only UFC title fight not to happen on a UFC event, it took place on the final WEC event.

In that fight, Cruz took every single round as he outstriked and outgrappled Jorgensen to a clear 50-45 decision. Jorgensen ended up having some striking problems for a brief portion in his fight with Ken Stone before knocking him out badly while being inside Stone’s guard. He would then go on to have a competitive victory against Jeff Curran at UFC 137.

But if Curran could be that competitive with him, I have a feeling that Renan Barao will do just enough to beat him. Barao beat Cole Escovedo for fifteen straight minutes in his UFC debut but his real star-making performance was at UFC 138 against Brad Pickett. It was a four minute fight that was awarded the “Fight of the Night” bonus as it contained an awesome exchange on their feet. Barao got the better of that exchange and managed to get Pickett’s back in beautiful fashion to tap him out via rear naked choke. I don’t think Barao will finish off Jorgensen but I think his striking will get the better of Jorgensen for the duration of the bout.