Crystal Lake Cage Fighter in UFC Comeback Bout

Mentally he was fighting to survive but not to win.

“I’m going to take more chances this time,” Jeff Curran said. “I was invited back to the UFC and I was given a choice.

"I could have taken a fight against a new guy. But I didn’t.”

For his 50th cage fight, Curran has chosen as an opponent Scott Jorgensen, one of the top-ranked 135 pounders in the UFC, in a bout scheduled for Oct. 29 in Las Vegas. 

The 34-year-old Curran has a respectable MMA record at 35-13-1, according to mixedmartialarts.com. 

Curran realizes he’s closer to the end of his career than the beginning.  It’s time to make a bold move. He wants a UFC belt.

Curran got the attention of the UFC by winning four of his last five bouts and is “jumping into the deep end of the division” by taking on Jorgensen, a former Boise State wrestler coming off a big win in June, according to mixedmartialarts.com.

and managing a stable of MMA fighters does at times get in the way of his own training. But he’s putting on blinders and looking straight ahead for this one.

He’s training hard.

Curran wrestled for an hour Wednesday afternoon. Then he practiced boxing for three five-minute rounds with his long-time trainer . He practiced kicks and ground fighting with trainer Brett Brendel. 

“A fight plan?” Mango said. “I don’t want to say anything right now. [Jorgensen] will be reading this on the Internet. But we’ve got something planned.”

The sole fight Curran had in the UFC was against Matt Serra in 2004. Curran lost a unanimous decision.

Curran graduated from Woodstock High School. He played baseball and hockey. He’s 2-2 with one draw as a professional boxer, according to boxrec.com.

He got the idea to open a mixed martial arts gym after working as a carpet installer and giving jujitsu lessons in the warehouse where the carpet was stored.

His alias is “The Big Frog.” Curran used to enjoy catching frogs with his friends and has a frog tattooed on his back.