Mike Whitehead has never been one to shy away from a challenge.

As a senior at Crater High in 1999, Whitehead had just won his 189-pound semifinals match in the Class 4A state wrestling tournament when he predicted that the team title between Crater and Newberg would come down to his finals match the next night with Newberg’s Ryan Sloan.

Never mind four other Comets would need to win their championship finals matches to make that possible, Whitehead was confident that’s how it would play out and that he’d be ready to bring it all home.

His teammates did their part and, with the weight of his team’s hopes of a second straight team title squarely on his shoulders, Whitehead dominated Sloan for a 7-4 decision.

It’s been six years, but Whitehead’s most recent venture is yet another example of how much he welcomes a challenge.

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The 24 year old was one of nine heavyweight fighters selected to be a part of "The Ultimate Fighter 2," a sports-reality television series on Spike TV created by the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) organization.

"I wanted to test myself against the top eight guys in the United States to just see where I’m at," Whitehead says of why he applied for the mixed martial arts contest.

A national audience will have the chance to scrutinize Whitehead and the 17 others overall selected for the TV show beginning Monday at 11 p.m. on Spike TV (Charter 40).

The second-year series is hosted by UFC President Dana White and follows the trials and tribulations of nine heavyweights and nine welterweights during a 38-day competition taped from June through mid- July in Las Vegas. The fighters train under UFC welterweight champion Matt Hughes and UFC middleweight champion Rich Franklin, honing skills from boxing to wrestling to jiu-jitsu. The winner of each weight class will earn a UFC contract in the November finale.

Whitehead says that while he enjoyed watching last year’s series, the Ultimate Fighter takes it up a notch this time around.

"The one thing I can say about the last season as opposed to this season is the level of athlete on the first show as opposed to the level on the second show are two different things," the 6-foot-2, 250-pounder says. "This time around it was definitely the top eight guys in the United States. There were no days off. If you had a fight, it was a tough fight because it was definitely against a top guy."

While a strict confidentiality agreement precludes Whitehead from talking too much about his experience until the series run is complete, one aspect had to be addressed. From the training facility to where all 18 fighters were housed together, they weren’t afforded a moment of privacy.

"It was definitely a good experience," he says, "but the one thing that I didn’t like was the cameras. Being from a small town in Oregon, I wasn’t about all the Hollywood cameras on me at all times. When you’re trying to have a conversation with a guy and eight inches away is a camera, it’s just not normal."

While Whitehead says it took him "about two weeks" to get used to the cameras, he appears pretty comfortable in the limelight during Monday’s premiere. At times intently focused as a fighter and at others joking with his peers and showing compassion for the wounded, Whitehead comes off as someone who could become a fan favorite before all is said and done.

"I put myself in a situation where great things can happen with this opportunity," he says. "This will slingshot my career as far as fighting faster than if I’d not gone on the show."

Whitehead, however, is far from being just a television product.

His interest in mixed martial arts fighting began back when he was wrestling at Southern Oregon University, and only heightened after he graduated from the University of Missouri with a degree in education.

After finishing up at Missouri, Whitehead drove to Iowa to check out the ballyhooed site of Team Miletich and its head trainer Pat Miletich.

"My plan was never to stay," says the three-time All-American wrestler, "but I got up here and the team liked me and I liked everybody here. I liked the chemistry here and how hard the workouts were so I decided to stay."

It proved to be the perfect choice to help Whitehead balance out his abilities, since Team Miletich is renowned for its work in developing standup fighters.

"I’ve definitely evolved into more of a standup fighter than I was," says Whitehead, who hopes to get his weight down to 205 within a year to be even more competitive in his craft. "Before I would just go out and fall back on my wrestling, take people down and go from there. Now I can stand with guys and trade punches whereas I was never able to do that before."

That’s not to say he didn’t take his lumps getting to this point.

Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays were the designated standup nights at Team Miletich, with Tuesdays and Thursdays for grappling.

"I took some major beatings for about eight months before things started going my way," Whitehead says. "Every Monday and Wednesday and Friday I’d have a bad night for about eight months."

But he turned the corner prior to becoming one of thousands to apply for the Ultimate Fighter 2 and says he now actually enjoys "standing up and taking guys apart." His work with Team Miletich, as well as a background in competitive wrestling, also helped when it came to having to trade blows with a housemate on the series.

"It was pretty rough when people fought (on the show)," says Whitehead. "They had to switch gears from two to three days ago joking with this person or trading technique with this person, all of a sudden now you’ve got to fight them."

"It wasn’t that unfamiliar and yet it’s still not that easy," he adds.

Which is part of the attraction in the first place.

Reach reporter Kris Henry at 776-4488, or e-mail khenry@mailtribune.com.