Alan Jouban is comfortable in all situations inside the Octagon, but that doesn’t mean he’ll go places he doesn’t have to.
Jouban is set to meet the ninth ranked Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) welterweight Gunnar Nelson at a UFC Fight Night event in London, England on March 18. It’s a huge opportunity for Jouban, who isn’t in the rankings.
It’s no secret that “Brahma” likes to strike, while “Gunni” is a ground specialist. Jouban told MMAJunkie.com that he is preparing for his ground defense:
“You look at his record, and 90 percent of his wins are on the ground from submission and probably 90 percent of those submissions are rear-naked chokes, so that’s the first thing that jumps off the page. He’s going to try to get you down, knock you down or take you down, try to get on top, throw some elbows, then try to get you to turn over so he can take your back. That’s one of the key things I’ve been working on lately: rear-naked choke defense.”
While Jouban may be working on his ground game, he doesn’t intend on keeping the fight there. “Brahma” would rather stick to his strengths to maximize his chances of winning.
“I feel confident on the ground, but at the same time I’m not going to play his game. If we go to the ground, I’m not going to try to play a chess match in jiu-jitsu where he always has the higher chance of winning against most guys in our division aside from, like, Demian Maia.”
