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| Name: |  Jan Jorgensen |
| Nickname: | Janimal |
| Age: | 25 |
| Height: | 6'2" |
| Location: | Utah |
Jan Jorgensen (1-0) is no stranger to the sound of two burly heavyweight athletes clashing in the midst of a heated battle for real estate. That was, in a nutshell, his job when he played defensive end for Brigham Young University, pushing, pulling, juking, and spinning his way past his opponent to sack the quarterback. Now, his aim isn't to move past his opponents. It's to break them.
Jorgensen's foray into the sport began in September of 2010, beating fellow collegiate football player Jerzy Siewierski by technical knockout in the third round of an amateur bout at Showdown Fights: Respect. He followed up the victory with a first round technical knockout of Felix Guel four months later at Showdown Fights: New Blood, then submitted Jeff Prescott in the first round at Showdown Shootout in April, improving his amateur record to 3-0.
In his pro debut at Showdown Fights: Evolution in November, Jorgensen continued his dominance, defeating Lolo Tuiaki by technical knockout when he couldn't answer the bell in the third round. It was an expected outcome considering Jorgensen's talented background and surprisingly well-rounded skill-set.
Feeding off a high school wrestling background and the skills it takes to move powerful, explosive offensive lineman out of his path, the 25-year-old is expectedly effective in the takedown department. He has a basic understanding of position on the ground, and he can control opponents from the top while he moves to more dominant positions or beats up opposition with ground and pound.
His stand-up game is surprisingly diverse for a novice fighter. He can work from the clinch, the Thai Plum, and from distance, mixing up his strikes and throwing combinations. He also possesses sufficient conditioning, enough to keep a pace that surpasses his opponent's rate of attack.
The jury is still out on whether Jorgensen can compete against better competition. Fortunately, the division isn't deep, and a few more wins should bring bigger names into the mix. Despite only having one fight under his belt as a pro, Jorgensen is worth keeping tabs on. He could make considerable progress in 2012. Look for him at Showdown Fights: Breakout on February 24 when he battles fellow prospect Aaron Magro.
Footage of Jan Jorgensen after the jump...
| Flyweight | Bantamweight | Featherweight | Lightweight |
|---|---|---|---|
| #1 - #2 - #3 - #4 - #5 - #6 - #7 - #8 - #9 - #10 - |
#1 - Rony Mariano #2 - Aljamain Sterling #3 - Chris Holdsworth #4 - Josh Hill #5 - Fabiano Fernandes #6 - Claudio Ledesma #7 - Sirwan Kakai #8 - Kyoji Horiguchi #9 - Leandro Hygo #10 - Pedro Munhoz |
#1 - Hacran Dias #2 - Joey Gambino #3 - Brandon Bender #4 - Lance Palmer #5 - Jim Alers #6 - Anthony Gutierrez #7 - Max Holloway #8 - John Teixeira #9 - Cody Bollinger #10 - Bubba Jenkins |
#1 - Fabricio Guerreiro #2 - Alessandro Ferreira #3 - Adriano Martins #4 - Justin Salas #5 - Neilson Gomes #6 - Eduard Folayang #7 - Zorobabel Moreira #8 - Anton Kuivanen #9 - Jordan Rinaldi #10 - J.P. Vainikainen |
| Welterweight | Middleweight | Light Heavyweight | Heavyweight |
|---|---|---|---|
| #1 - Andrey Koreshkov #2 - Dhiego Lima #3 - Brandon Thatch #4 - Nordine Taleb #5 - Hernani Perpetuo #6 - Brock Jardine #7 - Alan Jouban #8 - Mohsen Bahari #9 - Andre Santos #10 - Stephen Thompson |
#1 - Antonio Braga Neto #2 - Marcelo Guimaraes #3 - Claudio Silva #4 - Bojan Velickovic #5 - Ildemar Alcantara #6 - Michal Materla #7 - Elvis Mutapcic #8 - Tor Troeng #9 - Jack Hermansson #10 - Tim Ruberg |
#1 - Wagner Prado #2 - Phelipe Lins #3 - Tom DeBlass #4 - Misha Cirkunov #5 - Kyle Cerminara #6 - Robert Drysdale #7 - Artur Alibulatov #8 - Thiago Perpetuo #9 - Steve Bosse #10 - Juha Saarinen |
#1 - #2 - #3 - #4 - #5 - #6 - #7 - #8 - #9 - Jan Jorgensen #10 - David Oliva |
Check out profiles from local news stations here.
Jan Jorgensen vs. Felix Guel
Jan Jorgensen vs. Jerzy Siewieski
2 recs | 27 comments
College football could be a great source of heavyweight talent
There are thousands of strong, physical, athletic guys who would be very comfortable at 265 pounds and just aren’t quite good enough for the NFL.
MichaelDavidSmith - January 23, 2012
Forgive me if this particular pick seems quite random.
I’m sorry but the dude is 1-0, the one guy he beat was 2-2 when they fought, and he doesn’t have some amazing background in either grappling or striking either.
Maybe relax the age limit a bit for the next scouting report?
Chromium - January 23, 2012
I don't get it
A guy who’s 1-0 can’t be a great prospect? And what makes you think changing the age criteria would have made Leland leave Jorgensen off the list?
MichaelDavidSmith - January 23, 2012
I don’t even know what to say to this other than it’s ignorant.
Let’s look at the facts:
A. The heavyweight division is thin, the thinnest of every weight class.
B. Think about how many heavyweights can truly wrestle. Not very many, and only those at the upper-echelon of the division.
C. A huge guy who has played collegiate football at a high level, was scouted by NFL teams.
D. If you watch his tape, he’s surprisingly good on the feet, which he’s picked up in the short time he’s been involved in the sport, i.e. he’s a quick study; can absorb knowledge and implement it inside the cage.
Jorgensen would have made the list regardless. We’re talking about a guy who wrestled from age 5 through his senior year in high school on top of playing as a defensive lineman. He’s quick on his feet, a proven takedown machine, and possesses decent striking and a good ground and pound attack. The only reason Jorgensen sits at #9 is due to your reasoning. He has very little experience at a pro level. At heavyweight, you can’t put a whole lot of emphasis on strength of record because there aren’t very many strong heavyweights outside of the major promotions.
Leland Roling - January 23, 2012
I'm with you Leland
he has moments were you can really skills he has picked up very quickly. He could easily develop along the lines of a Matt Mitrione
T.P. Grant - January 23, 2012
You wanna talk about thin divisions, I follow Women's MMA
I follow WMMA a lot more than is healthy in fact.
(tl;dr: skip to the last two sentences)
All WMMA divisions combined aren’t as deep as Men’s HW. Outside of W145 I don’t think there’s any Women’s division where you can go 1-0 and be considered a serious prospect yet (and even there we’re talking about ex-Olympians or high-level Muay Thai fighters who beat name opponents in their debuts). Sure you don’t have to lop off but the top 15 or so W145 fighters if you eliminate everyone who has fought at that division for Strikeforce/Jewels/Valkyrie, but the number of active fighters at W145 is literally less than 10% of the number of active HWs and that’s being generous. This is from comments made by JCS who uses Sherdog’s entire database to rank fighters at FightMatrix.com (his estimate on the number of active fighters at HW + SHW who were “above the starter rating” was around 700; from comments he made when I tried to get him to expand the number of published rankings for one of the women’s divisions, even the deepest women’s division has only around 60 active fighters right now who meet the same criteria).
So yes, a 1-0 fighter without high-level credentials in a striking or grappling base, even if you eliminate everyone who’s ever fought in the majors, even at Men’s HW, it still struck me as odd to see him listed as a top prospect. I dunno, I’ll defer to you that Men’s HW really is that thin when you also eliminate everyone over 30 but I hardly feel I’m ignorant on the size of divisions.
Chromium - January 23, 2012
To be honest, I would have lined the entire HW rankings with 1-0, 2-0, and 3-0 guys if I wanted to completely crush the talent pool for next year’s report. There are a lot of very green, but athletic guys moving up. Jorgensen was one of the best of those talents.
This report isn’t about records. I really don’t know how many times I have to point that out. Sure, strength of competition is a factor along with newness to the sport, but heavyweight is so thin in regards to actual talent that a guy like Jorgensen can make a move to a major organization quickly. Plus, he actually has an amateur record. A lot of these guys don’t even do that.
Leland Roling - January 23, 2012
Fair enough
When I tried to do reports on WMMA prospects in the past, most of whom I could find little tape on (and in one or two cases none), I would cull out people with 1-0 records immediately unless they were previously a high-level wrestler/BJJ practitioner/judoka/kickboxer/whatever so it was a bit eyebrow-raising to see that. Even when I put down Rousey in the report I wrote for Gals Guide to MMA (and all of Rousey’s fights bar one are available in watchable condition online), I said I personally felt she was probably the best fighter of anyone available to Strikeforce at the time but that at 2-0 I couldn’t justify ranking her higher than third even with her 3-0 amateur record included. 6 months later she is clearly head-and-shoulders above the other 13 women I listed so I guess I could have justifiably gone with my gut feeling on that.
I suppose it was just a difference of philosophy in ranking.
Chromium - January 23, 2012
Matt Mitrione had his pro debut in the UFC. Athleticism goes a long way in a division as thin as HW
Holls Hoyce - January 23, 2012
Absolutely no one thought Mittrione was a great prospect while he was still on TUF
Even after he beat iup Kimbo Slice and Marcus Jones, people thought he was one of the worst HWs in the UFC, and say what you will about Slice but he’s probably a lot better than Lolo Tuiaki and Marcus Jones was a legit excellent prospect. Also Mittrione was ex-NFL at least.
Chromium - January 23, 2012
So you’d rather see us select some 35 year old 5’9" fat guy than Jorgensen?
smoogy2 - January 23, 2012
As far as age goes
Where did I say 5’9" and fat?
I would rather see a 30+ year-old monster or two. Brock Lesnar was 30 when he signed with the UFC and 31 when he got his first UFC win. Randy Couture started his MMA career at 33. Shane Carwin was 33 when he reached the UFC. Roy Nelson was 32 when he reached EliteXC. For that matter Matt Mitrione, mentioned earlier in the thread, was 31 when he made his professional debut. Lots of good or even great HWs never fought in the majors before they were 31 or older.
In other weight classes, Alexis Vila, a natural Flyweight, was 40 when he debuted in Bellator and knocked out their reigning Featherweight Champion Joe Warren in 64 seconds. And while it was an upset, it wasn’t a mindbending one, people who knew who Vila was knew he was really good. So yeah, while age is a consideration for people who are more potential than proven, I would have gone with a higher cutoff age.
Chromium - January 23, 2012
Those are exceptions to the rule. Fans can have fun seeing those guys succeed, but we had to limit our search criteria. Otherwise, we’d be here all day. I’m not going to sacrifice hours upon hours researching older fighters on the doorstep of a huge dropoff.
Leland Roling - January 24, 2012
Awesome nickname.
Ubernoober - January 23, 2012
He should get into the UFC based on that alone
He can walk out to the Manimal theme song
menckenstein - January 23, 2012
Leland was it really depressing going from all the other divisions to heavyweight?
All these awesome BW/FW/LW/WW/MW/LHW fighters and then BOOM… you’ve got the collection of everyone picked last for dodgeball.
menckenstein - January 23, 2012
Should've added:
Fortunately these two so far actually look better than Rob Broughton and Travis Browne.
menckenstein - January 23, 2012
The division isn’t overly depressing. My concern is that they aren’t all overly skilled enough to avoid being upset by inferior fighters.
Leland Roling - January 23, 2012
We really need a division between 205 and 265
I dunno what the cutoff would be but maybe it would help reduce the amount of sloppy Hutt-like heavyweights flooding the regional circuit
menckenstein - January 23, 2012
There are tons of “fat” heavyweights who are winning bout after bout with nothing more than their weight and punching power. We had to sift through all of that crap. I can’t tell you how many emails I get daily about heavyweights who are awesome and they aren’t. A lot of people look at David Oliva and say.. he’s just a fat ass. Yeah, but he’s a fat ass who can shoulder press Konstantin Gluhov above his head and slam him to the ground. Oh, and he can wrestle and pound out opponents on the ground. A lot of huge heavyweights can’t do that, and they gas inside 1 minute.
Leland Roling - January 23, 2012
what happened to the 2011 light heavyweight update
was looking forward for that, I know what Marcos Rogerio de Lima did but what about the others ??
couch-fighter - January 23, 2012
It will be up tonight.
Leland Roling - January 23, 2012
Jan
how is his first name pronounced? is it pronounced with a “y” sound or a “j” sound?
Robert V-U - January 23, 2012
It’s a most likely a Danish or possibly Norwegian name, quite common.. here it’s pronounced like “Yan” in English.
Horselover Fat - January 23, 2012
Thanks, that’s what I thought
Robert V-U - January 23, 2012
No, it's a J sound
Like the first syllable of January.
MichaelDavidSmith - January 23, 2012
yeah seriously
this is America guys J sounds like J and Y like Y
Dr Funkadunk - January 24, 2012
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