As one of North Carolina’s top lightweights, Jordan has been featured many times here at Pro MMA Now as part of “The Jordan Rinaldi Experiment” which detailed a portion of his career leading up to the opportunity to appear on the latest season of The Ultimate Fighter. Rinaldi was victorious in his first fight since competing to get into the house on TUF. Here Rinaldi gives his thoughts on the fight with Mark Dickman and more(the full fight is included at the end of the blog for your viewing pleasure). You can also find him on Twitter @JordanRinaldi.
150 pound catchweight was a success! Next stop, 145! This past weekend I won my 6th fight against a formerly undefeated Mark Dickman. It was a tough weight cut, and a tough fight.
I knew going into the fight that the weight cut to 150, the lowest I have weighed since high school, would be one of the most difficult parts. Heading to Kearney, Nebraska, I was weighing around 160 fully hydrated. I had dieted very well, and all I had to do once there was flush the water out. The day before weigh ins I began cutting water, and in 2 hours I was at 151.5 pounds, it was great! I had a little to eat and drink and the next morning I woke up around 148.5 pounds. This told me that I would feel good for the fight, and that I could make 145 if I was diligent with my diet.
The day of the fight I was extremely nervous, as usual. Every fighter gets nervous for their fights, and if they say they don’t, they are not telling the truth. This time I had a bigger chip on my shoulder and more to prove coming off the loss on The Ultimate Fighter. I was confident, but still nervous. I had my teammate Rodney Wallace and my brother Joseph out there with me, and they both did a great job of calming me down and instilling confidence in me.
As I went to fight the game plan was simple, keep it on the feet, and make him pay when he looked for take downs. That worked out well to a point. The mat was so slick, unlike any cage I have ever been in. There was a problem at the venue and the humidity made the mat an ice rink! I couldn’t throw my kicks with confidence, and I had to resort to one punch threats instead of combos. That’s why in the video you can see after one punch my feet would slide out so much that I couldn’t really follow with everything. It worked out ok, because after I landed my first right hand uppercut, I knew he respected the power, and couldn’t shoot easily. I threw my right hand a lot with reckless abandon because he wasn’t shooting and was just covering every time I punched. The flurry in the second round was a great feeling, but came with a cost. I was trying my hardest to finish him, forgot to conserve energy and use technique, and ended up burning myself out.
Going into the third round I knew I was ahead and that he was also tired. I decided to fake it, and act like I was full of energy and press forward the whole time, but only counter punch. It worked out ok tiring him out, but not enough to win the final frame.
Overall the fight went well, but I made a lot of mistakes that I can see in the tape and am working to correct. Next time I fight I will have worked diligently to correct the mistakes I made that won’t fly in the big league. Thanks for taking time to follow my career and hopefully next time I can do better. I praise Jesus for a safe and successful fight, and pray that I can get another victory my next fight in August at 145!