Pro boxer Ana Julaton talks great 'TUF 26' tryouts experience, hints at unique Bellator negotiations

Boxing standout and MMA fighter Ana Julaton may not have gotten the gig she was looking for, but attending “The Ultimate Fighter” tryouts was no waste of time.

Speaking to MMAjunkie Radio before the “TUF 26” selection process, which took place on May 27, Julaton was non-committal about her participation. But the ONE FC veteran not only took part – she made it through a few steps, advancing as far as being placed on standby.

Julaton, we now know, ended up not making it into the later-released list of “TUF 26” cast members. But she has no regrets about her decision to embark on the journey.

“It was just amazing to see the support for women,” Julaton told MMAjunkie Radio. “There was a lot of them out there. It wasn’t anything malicious or anything like that in terms of how women were interacting with each other, which was refreshing for me. I was taking it all in.

“It was just nice to see a lot of very athletic powerful women, and it was just a room full of them trying out for the show.”

Julaton says she is satisfied with how she was able to perform  – especially considering that, with a boxing match on the horizon, she hadn’t even been focused on MMA training. She was also there for a full week, which allowed her to see up close just how impressively thorough the entire process was.

“It’s so different than going into a boxing match,” Julaton said. “In a boxing match, it’s almost like a mom and pop kind of scenario, where you have a lot of these individuals that are going to deal with you. And it’s not so official – like how it was for ‘TUF.’

“At ‘TUF,’ you had the interview process, obviously the striking and the grappling portion, and then there was all these contracts you have to go through – and I’m talking about pages and pages and pages of it. So it ended up being like a whole-day thing and a week-long thing where you have a bunch of these women start doing all these medical checks, which takes forever. Again, it was a great experience.”

Julaton may currently be out of the running to become the UFC’s initial women’s flyweight champion, but she’s got some stuff cooking in the oven. While the flyweight – who hasn’t competed in MMA since December of 2015 – couldn’t give too many details, she hinted at some exciting scenarios that may or may not involve boxing.

“All I can say right now is that there’s this huge, huge possibility and this great opportunity that can happen where it hasn’t been done before,” Julaton said. “It will work out between boxing promoters – one being mine, Allan Tremblay – and Bellator. I’m just going to keep it at that.”

Julaton clarified that, while there’s a long-term “thing” in the works, she’s not yet signed under the Bellator banner. But she can say that she’s excited about the idea of working with a promotion that would allow her to pursue other endeavors.

“For me, it’s a dream come true just to not get locked up, so to speak, to just one organization or just one sport,” Julaton said.

Julaton says that, for now, she can’t go into too much detail. However, further pressed about the possibility of maybe meeting boxing champ Heather Hardy – who made waves with her successful pro MMA debut at last June’s Bellator 180 – Julaton said she’d be fully on board.

“The possibilities are endless,” Julaton said. “I think that would be a great fight. It would be a big money fight. Especially if it’s done correctly, in the right stage.”

Hardy, in turn, recently revealed on “The MMA Hour”  that she’s set to return at Bellator 185, which takes place at Oct. 20 in Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn. Her opponent remains unknown. At the occasion, Hardy also said that her new-found passion for MMA won’t deter her from pursuing boxing, as well.

On her end, at least, Julaton would be be open to meeting Hardy either whether it’s within boxing or MMA rules.

“It’s an extremely rare time – and it’s an exciting time for a lot of females at combat sports,” Julaton said. “I’m going to leave it at that.”

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

For more on the upcoming MMA schedule, stay tuned to the MMA Rumors section of the site.

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