Alan Jouban is back in action this weekend at UFC 236, facing Dwight Grant in a welterweight division encounter.
It has been over a year since Jouban has last competed and that’s due to the fact that he has been dealing with a myriad of injuries.
“I hurt myself training, it was just in wrestling. I mean it was a bit of just the nature of the sport that we’re in, I think I just probably had some stuff going on already and then in wrestling…it kind of inflamed it from there. I had two herniated discs, I had to get that worked on. When I fight on April 13th against Dwight, it’s gonna be fourteen months…a fourteen month layoff. That is by far the longest layoff I had in my entire career, I’ve always been a very very active fighter. Even in the amateurs, when I was an amateur mixed martial artist…I fought five times in one year. I told my coach I’m gonna fight five times, if I win all these fights…I’m gonna go pro and I did that. I went pro and from there, I stayed consistent. As you get older, look…I’m an older fighter. I’m not shy about that, I’m 37 years old. As you get older, you do slow down. But you slow down from five fights a year to two or three, but to go fourteen months without a fight…it’s been crazy man, it’s been crazy. It’s been a long journey getting healthy again and I’m happy I am, I’m fully healthy and I’m ready to rock and rock,” says Jouban in an exclusive interview with Fightful’s James Lynch.
Jouban last competed at UFC On Fox 28 in February of 2018, defeating Ben Saunders by second round knockout.
Outside of stepping into the Octagon, one thing Jouban also wants to do is some work over at ESPN.
“Dude, I hope so. It’s funny, I’ve been stalking ESPN and I’ve been emailing them and Instagraming them and everything. I’m like get me an audition guys, I’m getting used to the new way of things at ESPN. At first, I didn’t really like it. I thought they needed more content and they needed more people, I felt like they’re giving everything for they’re small group of people that they’re including and those people do a good job…but you want a variety of personalities and interviewers and different insight. I feel like right now, although everybody at ESPN has is very intelligent and smart. It’s like them saying you’re only going to watch Fox News or you’re only going to watch CNN and we’re being forced into only seeing this side of the story. I wish it would kind of come from different camps, different weight classes…new fresh faces. Let some new guys in there, experiment and we’ll see what they want. I think that Fox did that a lot, they would put new faces at the desk weekly. They would do different things and you’re getting a different look, some guys we’re great…they brought them back. Some guys weren’t that good, now we know. ESPN is kind of keeping a close circle and I wish it would open up a little bit, I’d love to go in there and see what I can do with them and if they weren’t happy…I would totally understand it. I feel like they’d be really happy, so I’m hoping so man. I actually went to my agency the other day and they said they’re gonna get me an audition over there, so we’ll see what happens in the future,” says Jouban.
UFC 236 takes place on Saturday, April 13 from the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia with Max Holloway and Dustin Poirier headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, with a post-show podcast to follow.
