Alan Jouban will be opening up the main card of Saturday Night’s UFC On Fox 22 bout when he faces Mike Perry in a welterweight division fight. Jouban, who has already competed a grand total of seven times under the UFC banner, believes that he’s the reason that Perry is on the card in the first place.
“It brought a little of the younger Alan out,” Jouban said to MMA Junkie. “I had to find myself for a minute. The younger me, the 19 or 20-year-old Alan that was scrapping in the streets all the time? He wanted to come out. But then the mature guy came out. I realized I’m leading this dance, not Mike. I’m not going to let him dictate how the trash talk goes, or how the fight goes. I’m leading this dance. I’m the bigger name. I’m the more experienced fighter. You’re on this main card because of you’re fighting me. That’s how I’ve taken it from there. I blocked him on Twitter, I didn’t respond to any of his really elementary insults. They were really lame so I stopped responding to him.”
Jouban, who is only 35 years old, is looking to fight more and more as he gets up there in years, which is why he squeezed one more bout in this year.
“I didn’t really care who the opponent was,” Jouban said. “I cared about who the opponent was in terms of wanting a top-15 guy. If it wasn’t going to be a top-15 guy, I didn’t really care… I’m 35 years old, I’m not trying to fight twice a year. I’m trying to fight as many times as possible before the end of my career. I wanted to fight again before the end of the year. I knew the Sacramento card was close to home, it was on big FOX, it would open me up a whole new audience. This is where I wanted to be. Preferably against a a big name or a top-15 opponent. But if it wasn’t going to be there? I was itching to fight.”
UFC On Fox 22 takes place on Saturday, December 17 from the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, California with Paige VanZant and Michelle Waterson headlining.
