Alan Jouban balancing aggression and caution with eye on 'Performance of the Night' KO

MEXICO CITY – Alan Jouban has done the calculated “being concerned about rankings and doing what it takes to win” thing. He’s also done the reckless “going to war” thing.

Now, he thinks he’s reached healthy middle ground.

Om Saturday Jouban (15-5 MMA, 6-3 UFC) looks to recover from a submission loss to Gunnar Nelson that snapped a three-fight winning streak. He has in Niko Price (10-0 MMA, 2-0 UFC) a peculiar choice of opponent: While Price brings in an undefeated record to the bout, he’s had only two UFC bouts. He finished both Brandon Thatch and Alex Morono – a submission and a knockout, respectively.

Price could certainly benefit a lot from a win over Jouban. But, for a goal-driven familiar name looking to resume momentum after a recent detour, a fresh face with some obvious finishing skills might look like an odd match-up.

So why say yes to Price?

“My opinion was it doesn’t really matter in the UFC that much,” Jouban told MMAjunkie ahead of the welterweight main-card scrap, which airs on FS1 from Mexico City Arena in Mexico. “Unless you’re in the top five or 10, if you’re in a three-fight streak, guys aren’t really going back and saying, ‘But who did he fight?’ They’re saying, ‘He’s on a three-fight win streak. What’s the momentum like?’

“And also, it’s not only if you’re winning fights, but it’s how you’re dong it. If I go out here and if I can real quick knock out this guy and I get on ‘SportsCenter’ the next day, that does just as much as if I had had a boring fight, or a great fight against a top-five or top-10 guy. So that’s my plan in this fight.”

Although he’s not exactly planning on getting hit, Jouban has prepared for war against Price. And for that, he’s brought out the fired-up “Alan Jouban of old” – you know that guy, the one who survived a hell of a scare before flooring Seth Baczynski in the first round of his UFC debut back in 2014.

But that doesn’t mean he’s about to entirely relinquish the more cerebral, defensive version that we saw picking apart Belal Muhammad and the hyper-aggressive Mike Perry en route to dominant decision wins a couple of years later.

The Price version, Jouban said, will still keep it smart. But it will also know when to pull the trigger, which he believes was lacking in his UFC Fight Night 107 outing with Nelson.

“The last fight, I stressed myself out too much on where am I the rankings, I need to fight a top guy, and this and that,” Jouban said. “And it kind of threw my game off. I was too cautious, too hesitant.

“Going into this fight, I don’t have those worries. I’m just here to knock somebody out, put on a ‘Performance of the Night’ for the Mexican fans and get the UFC fans behind me again. Letting them know that’s the same exciting fighter, and you never want to walk away from him when he’s fighting.”

To hear more from Jouban, check out the video above.

And for more on UFC Fight Night 114, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.