Alan Jouban has been a professional mixed martial artist for only five years, but the Lafayette, Louisiana, native has accomplished much in a short time. A brown belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu under Eddie Bravo, the 34-year-old fought for a Resurrection Fighting Alliance championship and has compiled a 3-2 record under the Ultimate Fighting Championship banner.
Sherdog.com: O’Reilly is largely an unknown fighter. What are your thoughts on him?
Jouban: Yes, he is somewhat unknown even though he’s already had a couple fights in the UFC, but I think it’s a great fight for me, to be honest. He prides himself on being an intense guy with a lot of heart. Those are great qualities and I respect that because I have those qualities, as well, but at the same time, I have a lot of skill to go along with those qualities. He likes to put guys up against the cage and kind of grind them out, but over the years, that’s become one of my strongest points. A few years ago, my anti-wrestling wasn’t that strong, but I’ve put in so much time over the past two, two and a half years that I feel very comfortable with my back against the cage if it goes there. If he does try and put me up against the cage, he’s going to have a big battle in trying to take me to the ground. I’m also very offensive from the clinch, so that’s another thing he’ll have to look out for.
Sherdog.com: What do you see as his biggest weakness?
Jouban: I think it’s pretty obvious. When you look at it on paper, he bounces around between the 155- and 170-pound weight classes. He’s a shorter guy, where I’m bigger and I’ve been at 170 for a long time; I’ve never dropped down to 155. He shoots in a lot and he doesn’t want to stand and trade with guys who are lesser strikers than me. I don’t see him wanting to stand on the outside and try to strike with me, so the longer I keep it on the feet, the more I’ll be able to pick him apart.
Sherdog.com: You are fighting O’Reilly in his hometown. How do you prepare yourself mentally for going into an arena where the entire crowd will be cheering against you?
Jouban: It really motivates me. It really does. In my second fight in the UFC, I fought down in Brazil and it was super hostile. I was fighting Warlley Alves and we were in each other’s faces during the weigh-ins, and the crowd there was chanting in Portuguese, “You will die,” and I just fed off of it. After the fight, half of my fan base became Brazilians even though I lost the fight, though I think I kind of got robbed; but with this fight, I am really excited to go down to Australia. I’ve never been there. It’s a beautiful place and I always wanted to go down there, so I get to go there with my teammates and I’m excited. I feel that going there to fight an Australian is more of an opportunity for me because I can fight one of their own and win over the Aussie fan base. I’m really looking forward to the challenge.
Sherdog.com: Fighters like Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather Jr. relish being villains. That does not seem to fit you, but you mentioned you loved being the bad guy in Brazil. Do you plan on playing that role against O’Reilly?
Jouban: I don’t think being the bad guy or villain is in my personality, so no. However, being the underdog is something that I’ve always enjoyed and it’s something I have always had inside me. I think it’s two different things. I’m not a bad guy at heart, so I don’t think I’ll ever be the heel or what have you. I actually would love to be able to win over every single fan and have everybody love me, but I know that’s never going to happen. You’ll always have the haters no matter what you do. I think being an underdog is something that I’ve always had and maybe it’s because of how I grew up, but I think overall that I’m naturally a gamer. I train extremely hard and I go through all the drills and repetitions and I’m always improving. I’m the type of guy who, when the lights go off and the other guy is trying to rip my head off, that’s when I perform the best. I relish the challenge, and I love being under the bright lights.
Sherdog.com: Are you training for anything in specific as you travel to the other side of the globe?
Jouban: I don’t think there’s anything I can do to try and adapt to Australia because the elevation is pretty much the same as it is here in [Southern] California. I know it’s toward the end of their summer, so it might be a bit warm. The only thing I’m thinking of is the 18-hour flight across the Pacific Ocean, but even then, it’s really not that big a deal. Our bodies don’t recognize Sunday to Monday or Friday to Saturday, but it does recognize changes in six-hour increments. It recognizes things six hours in advance. We are fighting over there in the morning so it’ll be televised live here on Saturday night, but even then, that’s no big deal because I train every day at 10 a.m. and then every night at 7 p.m. Those are really the only times we would be fighting anyway, so I automatically have those bases covered. I was talking to somebody else about how that part of Australia apparently is very similar to San Diego. If that’s the case, then great, because I fought in San Diego a few fights ago and that entire atmosphere was very relaxed. The air and the environment was peaceful and we weren’t stressed out, so if Australia is really like San Diego, then hopefully we as a team can replicate that feeling. If we do, then we’ll have a terrific performance when it’s time to fight.
Sherdog.com: You are coming off your loss to Tumenov in October. It was the first time you had been knocked out as a pro. What was that like?
Jouban: Oh, it was s---ty. It was one of those things where I just wasn’t feeling it and I had an off night; and when you have an off night against someone like Albert, who is a high level striker, that’s the result you’ll get. For some reason, I just couldn’t pull the trigger when I needed and I put my back against the cage in a fight where we didn’t want that. I did it anyway, and I paid the price. After I got hit, I don’t really remember much. I got my bell rung and I hit the canvas. Next thing I know, I’m standing in the middle of the Octagon while he’s getting his hand raised. Then I’m in the ambulance on my way to the hospital to make sure I was OK. I remember asking my manager what happened because my mind was very foggy; my brain was scrambled. It wasn’t too long before everything started coming back to me and I realized the mistakes that I made. It’s kind of like what Conor McGregor said, “You’ve got to take it on the chin and swallow your pride,” but it was tough. I knew my friends and family were there and it sucks that I lost, but the hardest part about the whole thing was that I didn’t want to tell my son that I lost. He’s 3 and he looks up to me like I’m a super hero, and I love to live that up to him. It was his birthday the next day so I drove straight home to Louisiana to be there to celebrate his birthday, and I just didn’t know what to tell him. I think I just told him that, “Daddy fought real hard,” but that was definitely the toughest part of the whole thing.
Sherdog.com: Mentally, how did you deal with being knocked out?
Jouban: I wasn’t apprehensive about getting back in there at all. I took some time off anyway because camp was so long, but I did ease myself back into training. It wasn’t like I was afraid to get hit or anything like that, but you have to be smart. After getting knocked out, you can’t just show up and start sparring hard right away and taking blows to the head, so I eased myself back in, got my body adjusted to training again and then after that, it was back to normal.
Sherdog.com: Knowing how cutthroat the sport can be, do you feel a sense of urgency to get back in the win column after your loss to Tumenov?
Jouban: I feel some urgency going into this fight to get back on track, but it’s not because of me being scared of [UFC President] Dana White or the UFC cutting me more than I need this for myself. Right now, this sport is so wide open because people can kind of come seemingly out of nowhere and take the sport over. Robbie Lawler is a great champion at welterweight, but who’s to say someone else won’t take over 170? Conor McGregor took over the whole sport at 145 and became the biggest star ever, but then Nate Diaz just came out of nowhere and knocked him off his throne. I mean, Nate has been around for a long time so he didn’t exactly come out of nowhere, but that wasn’t supposed to happen. Look at welterweight: Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson just shot right up to number two in the world by coming almost out of nowhere and knocking out [Johny] Hendricks. You can do that in this sport. You go in there and have a phenomenal performance against a top guy, and then the next thing you know, you’re headlining an event or you’re in the rankings as a title contender. Right now, people are getting paid more and they are becoming bigger stars outside of the Octagon. I look at it as an opportunity to win over thousands of Australian fans by doing something spectacular, and that will put me right back on the same path I was on before I fought Albert.
Sherdog.com: As a two-time “Fight of the Night” award winner, do you feel as though the fans and media overlook you sometimes?
Jouban: I do, but I also think it’s a number of things. I think I just need to get in a couple more fights and get a couple more wins to get that recognition. I’m in the fifth fight of my six-fight deal with the UFC. If you really look at it, though, other than, say, Holly Holm, most of these guys who are fighting for the title have had 10, 12 [or] 15 fights already in the UFC. These guys have been in the UFC for four, five, sometimes six years, where I’ve only been here for two. I think people who know me like the way I fight, but I’m not thought of as being a top guy yet and that leads me to the next point in that I need to break into the rankings. I need to get into the top 10. I was hovering near there before Albert got me, so I think if I can get a few more good wins under my belt, then I’ll be in the top 10 or 15 or just outside of it. Once that happens, my name will be out there more and more, and then that’s where more opportunities come.
Sherdog.com: You fight in one of the most competitive divisions in the sport. How long will it be before you are ready to face the elite at 170 pounds?
Jouban: By the end of year, I believe. If I had beaten Albert, I’d be in the top 15 for sure and maybe even a little higher -- or at least very close to that. I’m coming off a loss so I know I need to rebuild myself, but I want to have three fights this year. If I can get three fights and win them all, I think I’ll be ranked in the top 10 and then I’ll know I’ll be ready for the best guys in my division.