NW Fightscene's NorCal correspondant, Steve "Spaniard" Valentine caught up with Jason Von Flue at weighins for Friday's Strikeforce Challengers show to be held in the Save Mart Center in Fresno, CA. Von Flue is on hand to coach his fighter, Chad Sutton, in the opening bout of the evening versus Spencer Herns...

NW Fightscene: Steven Valentine with Jason Von Flue. Jason, how you been?
Jason Von Flue: Busy, busy, busy. Bartending, training, working with my fighters. Got Chad Sutton fighting here tomorrow night at Strikeforce in Fresno. So yeah, just very busy.

How's training?
Training's been really intense. I love it out here man. Since separating from The Pit, starting my own fight team, Team Livewire, building a couple guys from the ground up, and redeveloping myself, it's been off the hook. I'm really really excited. 

Tell us about Team Livewire, your team, where its based and a little bit about it. 
Team Livewire, the best way to put it is its based out of Fresno. It represents two gyms independent of each other: Fresno Kickboxing Academy and Royce Gracie of Fresno. Both schools conveniently located in Clovis. I have fighters out of both schools. Same camp, different schools. And I got a bunch of guys who are young and hungry. I'm the old pro on the team and you know, I'm really excited. God's really blessed me on this. 

Your fight game, what's new for you? What's coming up next?
I just had a nice win over at Pure Combat down in South Valley. I'm trying to market myself here in Central Valley where I'm from. [I'm] most marketable out here via fight money purse wise and sponsors. So this is my overall focus. I have a contract with Strikeforce which I'll be activating a little later this year, maybe over the summer, maybe San Jose in August. In between then, we got Cage Combat working on getting a show out here. War Gods is struggling but we're going to try and pull another one off. You have a couple of other shows that are coming. I hear there is a new one coming in June supposedly out here at Selland Arena. So there's a lot of work to be done out here. You never know what's going to pop up nationwide or internationally.

I was at PFC 13 and I saw you there, actively watching the

Olaf Alfonso/Kyle Pimental fight. I saw you getting a little antsy.

Are you looking to get that fight with Pimental?
Oh, Dear God yes!

What's the deal there?
Well, I lost to Kyle November 1st of last year at Rumble in the Park II. The man won fair and square, and I have a lot of respect for him. He is a cool, cool cat. Problem is I hurt my ribs. I bruised my lower right rib severely three weeks before that fight to the point where I should have pulled out but I fought anyways. I'm just not that person. I'm the headline and I can't pull out. They're depending on me to show. People are paying good money for me to show at this thing. And arguably it was the fight of the night. I was on the losing end of it, but I got a huge pop when I walked out. Internet ratings said it was the fight of the night, and I was the fighter people came to see. Injured ribs and he got a good kick in, and the second kick hit that spot. I couldn't do nothing, what can you do... But now he has something that I want. Now I want to fight him. Now OK... I mean this guy, he couldn't hold me down in that first fight. He couldn't do much with me. I knocked him on his butt with my hands. A healthy Jason Von Flue, a healthy Livewire beats a Mohawk. I'll shave that damn thing. 

Do you think that'll be something you'll pull through Strikeforce,

or do you want to do it at PFC?
No, the reason I want this fight at PFC is because he has something I want. He has the world title. He has the welterweight title. This is what I want...  If he would have picked up the Welterweight Title at Cage Combat, then I would have challenged him at Cage Combat. No, I don't want to fight him at Strikeforce. No, what's to gain? I'm not so prideful that I have to avenge my losses. I got a lot of fuckin' losses. 

You want the PFC title.
I want the PFC title and I want to be paid right for it, and I want to fight, win, and defend that title. It's an open challenge to him or Olaf. It didn't matter who won, because I'll tell you what, I'll spank both of them. 

So that's an open challenge to Olaf as well?
Well, if he would have won. I hear rumor he's going to go back down to 55. That's a good idea for him. Because if he runs in to me at 170, I'm going to knock him down to 55. I don't talk a lot of trash, but Damn, what's it take for me to get the fights that I want. Dana White told us when we were fighting on the Ultimate Fight Night, after the fight when they're interviewing and they say "who do you want to fight?", don't do the tough guy thing "Oh anybody, it doesn't matter." No, call out the opponent. I'm calling out the opponent. I want Kyle Pimental out there (at PFC). Here in Fresno, I don't really care who it is. I just want to get a chain of fights back together, and step up and fight someone crazy tough, and get myself back in the UFC where I feel I ultimately belong when I'm ready. When its time. 

Tell us about your guy fighting tomorrow at Strikeforce Challengers. 
Chad "The Minnesota Mohawk" Sutton. Chad is every bit a 6'2" and a solid 185 lb fighter. He's from Minnesota off of Dave Menne's camp. I picked him up early last year when he moved out here... Anyways, he started training with me and come to be good friends, and he's trusted me to manage and train him and guide him the best I can. This is his opportunity that we've been waiting for, a step-up fight. You can fight all the small regional shows but when you have the shot at something like Strikeforce, even on short notice like this fight, we have to take that fight. The opponent he's fighting [Spencer Herns], he's a 0-0 guy out of AKA. He's a brawler/wrestler. He's very explosive, in great shape.. its going to be a good fight. S0 I'm looking really forward to this. Hopefully we're going to pull it off and hopefully land him a solid Strikeforce contract. That's the ultimate goal is getting him a contract.

Much thanks to Jason for talking with NW Fightscene.

Visit him online at myspace.com/livewire187