Life as a Versace Model and MMA Fighter: Alan Jouban

Everybody, thank you so much for joining us. I got my good friend here, Alan. Joe Bain. How you doing, Alan?

What's up, guys? What's up, man?

Hey, thanks so much for joining us. Alan is a model, a buddy of mine. We bartended together. We've been in the trenches, modeling a lot of downtime, talking about our dreams, whether it was me talking about nutrition. I remember that one time when I was telling you about sardines and stuff, you called me, you texted me from Trader Joe's, and you're like, wait, is this the one right here? And you went out and like, the whole sardine avocado hot sauce combo, which is still my go to. It's kind of cool that you actually listen because a lot of these people, you know, find it crazy, but it's just like, that craziness is passion and like, it's just. It's kind of cool to see both of us doing our thing right now. So if you wouldn't mind just kind of telling, Sharing, sharing your story with my audience about how you. Where you're from and just telling them a little bit about your athletic background and how it just led into, you know, modeling. And it's a. It's a trip, it's a killer story. But nobody. I'm not sure a lot of people out here know about it.

Yeah, absolutely, man. And by the way, I still. I still buy those sardines at Trader Joe's. The red or pink can or whatever.

Yeah, the purple.

Purple, yeah, yeah, purple. Kind of like purple. Yeah, those are. Those are still my go to as well.

That's all.

So, yeah, man, for me, as Andy said, man, like, you know, I'm the UFC and still doing modeling and everything, but it was a long road to get here. I mean, I've been fighting for 10 years now, and I've just been in UFC for about two years. So I was a guy, athletic guy, growing up, played soccer for about the first 20 years of my life. I blew my ACL. Tore my ACL my senior year of high school. And so I didn't get to play my senior year of high school. Didn't even get the opportunity to maybe get a scholarship or anything to go on to college. And from there I was kind of just floating around. Got offered a modeling contract to move to New York. And so I was, you know, I'm like 19 years old. I have nothing to do, not really going to school anymore. So, you know, let me take this opportunity. Started doing some modeling, traveling around. Wound up in la, and when I was in la, which is when we started, when we started working together, met each other doing random jobs, you know, doing random jobs, but getting paid here and there, and then bartending on the side, trying to make ends meet. But the thing about modeling, man, that always frustrated me was like, you have no say in it. You know what I mean? You have no say in it. You're waiting for the phone to ring, hoping that somebody's. That. Their objective, whatever. They have, their goal, the look that they like is what you have. And so you can't really improve upon it, is what I'm trying to say. And so it always frustrated me. And when I moved to LA 10, 15 years ago, I don't remember how long ago it was now I joined the gym set doing Muay Thai, and it instantly kind of clicked for me, because Muay Thai was something that I always kind of had in my heart. It was always something that I was passionate about, martial arts and fighting. And then I realized, man, I could improve very fast because I took to it immediately, and I was training twice a day. I had my first Muay Thai fight within, like, three months. And I was like, well, shit, if I'm training twice a day, improving this fast, you know, it's endless. I could just keep going and going and going rather than waiting on a phone ring, modeling. So, yeah, man, from one thing led to another with fighting Muay Thai, taking up jiu jitsu, starting to fight mma. I had my first MMA fight, I think it was 2011, amateur. And I told my coach, I said, look, if I fight five times this year and win every single fight, can I go pro? Cause at the time, I was still kind of like, under his authority, I guess you would say. So he said, yeah, man, you fight five times, win them all, we'll go pro. Fought, won all my fights as an amateur, went pro. And from there, man, it's just been one constant goal to get to the ufc. I didn't care about title belts. I didn't care about fighting on or off TV or. Or I didn't care about anything other than what did it take? What was the formula to get from fighting in the small shows, like you said, where I'm selling tickets, selling T shirts, trying to make a little money off the back end, because I'm only getting paid, like, a thousand dollars a fight, you know, So I need to make a little extra money doing other things, make it worth it. These four months in between fights, what's the fast track to get to the ufc? And it was different formulas at the time. Was it being undefeated? Was it going on a win streak of like, five fights? Was it having a title belt? I didn't know, but I just wanted to do whatever I had to do. So eventually got signed to the UFC about two years ago, and as of my last fight, that was seven fights into the. In my UFC career, five. Two record. In UFC 3, Fight of the Night performances, three first round knockouts. It's been fun, man. It's been entertaining, and I look forward to the second half or the second part of my UFC career.

That's a trip. And 6 and 1. I really feel like it should have been with that, all this thing, man. My brother and I, that. That still trips me out, and we get a kick out of it. Actually, the third round of that, where you're jogging towards him, that's hilarious. But to the people out there, Alan, one of his. One of his losses has an asterisk in my mind. But anyway, yeah, man. The thing. Yeah, no, it's true. The thing that I am curious about is when you, like, you people start out, like, you start out Muay Thai, all right, Just for. And like, say, like, did anybody think you were. Was MMA even a glimpse back then because. Or did you just do it because you're like, man, I love. I love this. That's obviously why you did it, right? Because you wanted to get mma. Like, it just sounds like so much work when you're, like, perfecting. You're just really rolling into Muay Thai and killing it. You could have stayed there, but that, from that point, was it just like, damn, I kind of want to see if I can. So MMA was the ultimate goal immediately, like, right off.

No, you're right. I didn't know it. First I went in there, I started fighting Muay Thai, and I realized, man, I love Muay Thai. At the same time, I just started dating my now wife.

Yeah.

Oh, who. Who's Thai? So it was just like, it was too perfect. I was like, oh, shit. I'm training. I'm fighting Muay Thai. My girlfriend at the time is from Thailand. I think I'm gonna be a Muay Thai fighter. And then when you look at it back then, that was like 2005. That was right when the first Ultimate Fighter started really taking off, which is what. When the Ultimate Fighter, the TV show, the Ultimate Fighter, launched on Spike, that's what kind of sparked the. Made the UFC blow up, and that's when it really got bigger. So at the time, I was still fighting Muay Thai for a couple of years, thinking that's what I wanted to do. But there's no more. There's no money in Muay Thai, man. It's sad. You see a lot of these. These. These guys from Thailand who. Who are champions in Thailand. Lumpani Stadium champions. They've got 250 fights, but yet they live in America. And they're still. And they're still living in somebody's gym and training people. And I didn't want to be that guy, you know, I didn't want to be a champion in a sport. To me, success has a lot of different. A lot of different parts to it. People. People from back home in Louisiana, they would look at me and tell me, man, like, you're successful in modeling.

And.

Because maybe they saw me in, like, a J.C. penney's catalog. And to me, it was. It was funny. I thought it was great. But it's like, it's successful because you saw me in a magazine. Although only made $1,200 for the day, when you're probably making 70 grand a year, when I was probably only making 40, 50 grand. You know what I mean?

Yeah.

Success to me varies on, okay, you. Maybe you're a champion, but are you financially, are you. Are you able to take care of your family? Have you accomplished all your goals? You know, you might have that plaque or that belt on the wall, that champion on the wall, championship title belt, but are you able to pay your bills? Are you able to meet all your goals, your requirements? Success is a variety of things, man. And I don't even know how I got tied up on that, but Muay Thai was something that I wanted to do, but I realized there was no money in it, man. There was no money in Muay Thai. I didn't want to be a Muay Thai champion who was broke and struggling to feed my family. So MMA was the route that I went. I found out real quickly that I loved it. I loved mma.

That's awesome. I mean, yeah, it's like you said, so 2005, I forget. I forget what it was, but. And I forget when we started talking, but I think when we first started working together, it was just Muay Thai, and it was awesome. Like, I'll never forget you. Like, you're one of those guys, man. That's why I wanted to see you fight, because you just. It's kind of like me with baseball, like, whether not even knowing it. I'm going over my swing. I'm kind of going over mechanics. You'd be in the hotel lobby, kind of like just working on your hands, probably not even knowing it. I'm like, man, this guy loves it, dude. And I'm like, man, that's why. But that was early on. I don't even know. I don't even. I think it was like 2007, 2008 or something like that. But I was just curious to know, like if it was in your head to go, I ultimately want to be like you said it is. That's where the money is at. But like to go, all right, well, I got to get better. What is it? So wrestling and then jiu jitsu and then Muay Thai. So those are the three, right? And then boxing, obviously you box as well, so. All right, cool. I'm just trying to put together like a timeframe in my head when you went, damn, dude, this actually could be something here rather than just a passion and this could be a career. So that's, that's, that's really cool.

Muay Thai was the first martial art that I, that I discovered, so I fell in love with it. And you know, for me at the time, it's like anything, you know, anything that you first discover that you, that you first get excited about, that becomes kind of your world. And I look at a lot of stuff like that in life. Like when in martial arts, it generally takes about 10 years to get you a black belt. And jiu jitsu, especially about 10 years to get a black belt. So your first two years you're a white belt and then a blue belt and then a purple belt, then a brown belt and a black belt and that 10 year span. And I look at everything in life like that, man. Like when I go to the dentist, when I go to the dentist or the doctor, I sometimes ask him, you know, how long has this guy been around or whatever? Because I want to know, is this guy, he went to school, but is he a black belt? Is he a master at his craft? You know what I mean? Because there's different levels of black belt, you know what I mean? So I compare everything to martial arts, man. It's funny. But the blue belts I find in anything in life are the ones that are the most die hards. Those are the ones that are on the forums, those are the ones that are on, that are like talking trash keyboard warriors, you know, Those are the guys that within the first two to three years of discovering something, they want to be the voice, they want to be the guys on the front line. Those are the blue belts, those are the hardcore guys. That argue where the black belts, they've been through that shit too long, man. They're sitting back, they're the wiser older guys, they've been through that. They're like, you know, let the blue belts take care of us. So, yeah, man, I was excited about Muay Thai for a long time when I was a blue belt in Muay Thai. But after doing it for so long now, you know, and obviously discovered mma, I learned that you have to be good at everything. Good, you know, good everywhere. And I'm not just considering myself a Muay Thai fighter anymore, man. I consider myself a well rounded mixed martial artist to this day and an athlete.

I just, I played baseball at a high level, but football was probably, believe it or not, football was my best sport. But like, when I went out there in basketball, you know, same thing. But when I went out there and me and you mix, I had the opportunity to train with you a little bit before leading up to the Walsh fight. And I just, and this isn't just saying it, I was blown away, not only by you, but by, I forget his name, your boyfriend. And just, man, the motors you guys have. I mean, you guys have a motor and it's just non stop and. But not only that, the agility, the athletic ability that you guys, that you have, I mean, it's just, it's very impressive. I mean, I even think, like, you know, I mean, just like, I could see the soccer thing. I mean, I wouldn't. That's why I wanted to ask about the soccer thing. If, like, that was a legitimate chance, like if you did have like those aau, those club teams, you probably did have a little chance to mix it up in high school before you tore your acl, huh? Or was it.

I thought I was a good soccer player, but you know what? I was. It probably wasn't my passion. It probably wasn't my passion because growing up, I played soccer my entire life and I liked it. But I would go to these tournaments as a kid, I played select. So we would travel, you know, go. Go to Mississippi, play a couple things in Alabama, we would travel and play different leagues, but we would go to the. We'd go to the different tournaments and I was like smoking and drinking in the hotel rooms on the weekends and playing, you know, games. And we go to Texas, it'd be 107 degrees. We'd have three games in one day. And I'm like going smoke cigarettes in between games. I wasn't serious about it. You know what I mean? I wasn't passionate about it. It was just something that I did as a kid, so I was still doing it, but I knew that I had a good ability at it. When I tore my knee, obviously that was the end of it. And I think if I was that passionate about it, I probably would have continued to pursue it, and I didn't. So I think that was kind of the fork in the road that made me veer and go somewhere else. Finding martial arts, though, it's something that I obsess over and, and you're the same way, like you mentioned, where I would kind of shadow box in hotel rooms. And you're always talking about different levels of skincare and fitness and agility. It's. If you're going to be like, successful in something, you need to be mildly obsessive about it. You have to, because you need to be always kind of formulating a new plan or thinking about it or thinking about like, like you see somebody say, I want to get 1% better at whatever I'm doing every day. 1% better every day is almost impossible because in 100 days you're going to be pretty damn good. So just to mildly get.001% better every day, that's a big up, man. I mean, if you, you know, if you train it twice a day, 365 days a year, you're going to be a badass year to year. So that's what people like you in your area and me in my area, that's what we do. We obsess over what we do because we want to get to the fast track to success, you know?

Oh, absolutely.

Yeah.

I'll never forget, like me and you kind of sitting around and like, I just can't help myself. Like, you know, I think one time you walked in, we were just backstage somewhere on a job and I was just like, I just light up. You know what I mean? I can't help myself just talking about whatever it is, skincare, just nutrition. And I think you're like, oh, here he goes. But yeah, man, I remember those days, dude. But no, you're absolutely right. It's. It's great. It's what, it's what makes us who we are. And that's why you're doing what you're doing. That's why things are going the way they are with me. But it's just, it's just, it's, it's fun because it's. There's nothing else. You know, I found my passion right around the same time that you got. Yeah, you Said two years ago you got signed, right?

To the ufc.

Yeah, to the ufc. But even before that, you were, like, doing really well. But like, yeah, I got my opportunity two years ago too, and things. Yeah, it's just. It's just cool how it's all worked out.

And when you said you got your opportunity two years ago, what was it two years ago that happened?

So I got, believe it or not, I cold emailed a company that I was using a ton of their products, and I would copy paste an email. I troubleshooted Dave Asprey's email address. D. Asprey. Dave Asprey. David Asprey. David at Bulletproof, one of them went through. I shot a before picture of me in the ICU all laid up, and then an after picture of, like, me doing a modeling job. And I just wanted to get a discount on his products, but, like, hopefully want, like, maybe work with the company. He's a CEO of Bulletproof. Bulletproof, they have a cafe on Main street in Santa Monica. They're like, Forbes is rated on, like, top 25 most influential brands in the. In the United States or something. They're blowing up. But one of those emails went through and he. He got back to me. We had like a 45 minute conversation. He had me on his podcast. Long story short, he invested in Alatura. He brought my product on the site that I was buying from. I mean, I was packaging and yeah, I mean, it's surreal, man. Like, I would. This is the. The site that I was just trying to get a discount on. Next thing you know, Model, Actor, the concoction by Andy Nilou that I created after my accident to help rejuvenate my skin and my scarring. And anyway, yeah, that's. That's how it all started. I mean, that voice that he gave me to, like, tell my story to his. His audience, and he's so trusted, and he's. He's as obsessed with ingredients as I am. So that's why we both sat down one night over dinner, and we're like, hey, man, are you getting the response that I am after that podcast that we did? I'm like, I am like, every time, Alan, I didn't have a website, so every time I refreshed my browser, my Yahoo browser, I just gave out my email address. And people were like, how do I buy this product, man? I was running to Whole Foods, packaging my stuff, handshaking it, and then sending it off to, like, Sweden. And then he helped me fund it, we financed it, we packaged it correctly to how it is right now, and then it's kind of. It's really taken off. But yeah, that's how it all started, man. I mean, it's just kind of pounding the pavement, you know. But, yeah, thanks for asking, man.

I mean, that was shortly after or short before you sponsored me for my fight when I fought at the Staples center, which was, you know, that was about, I don't know how long ago that was. That was February 2015. To February. Okay. Yeah, so that was, I guess, you know, maybe six months before my fight or something like that.

It was. Yeah. So Dave and I launched June 26, 2014. You and I. Yeah. So if that was February 2015, we were just in it and it just. Yeah, to the audience out there, it was the coolest thing. One of the coolest things for me was working with Alan and being able to. Just to support. Not that you need it, but at the time, just to be a part of your dream. I think not only karma wise, but energy wise, just to be a part of your camp. I saw your work ethic, I've seen your drive. I've been there working with you on several different levels. And now to sponsor Allen and to be on his. His shorts at the time here at the Staples center, ironically enough, was seriously one of the coolest things of my journey so far. So, yeah, that was.

That's a great moment, man. Yeah, it was cool.

That was really cool. So, yeah, man, I got a couple questions here just to kind of. Just to kind of switch it up. I'm curious about the whole weight cut thing. So you have it obviously down to a science. And nutrition is big, Is a big passion for me and my audience out there. Actually, they. I told him to email me a couple questions. That's one that keeps popping up, is, so what do you do for weight cut? And if you wouldn't mind sharing that.

I mean. Yeah, not at all. The weight cut is something that I think everybody is. They're always tweaking. You're always kind of tweaking your weight cut. And I think no matter how long you've done it and you see the guys on the highest levels, the guys making the real dough, the real money at this point, they don't even bother with it. They hire a nutritionist or they hire a chef. The guy comes to their house every day and he's cooking their meals, he's giving them what to eat. They don't even have to think. They know they're getting the right stuff. They have somebody who's an expert about it. And so you can afford something like that, which I don't. I can't do that right now. I eat whatever my wife cooks me. So we just buy healthy food, man. You know, like, to me, that's always. People sometimes ask me for, like, advice and this and that. It's like, man, I eat 95% of my meals at home. I don't eat out very often. I eat all my meals at home. My wife cooks them. And so when we go to the store, when we go to Trader Joe's, when we go to Ralph's, it's just like she pretty much asked me. She goes, what kind of mode are we in right now? Are we just in, like, eat whatever we want mode? Are we eating. There's levels to my camp, and in the beginning of the camp, eat whatever I want. Doesn't matter. I'm eight weeks out from my fight. It's not going to make a difference. I'm working out twice a day anyway. I'm pretty much going to be in decent shape. I don't need to lose weight. At the point, though, midway through my camp, within about a. Not midway, but closer to a month. Excuse me, a month to my fight, it's more about still eating what I want, but putting in the superfoods. Putting in the stuff that's gonna. Because at that time, I need to start putting really good stuff, really good fuel in my body because I need to start getting close to cutting weight time. And I want that energy, that extra energy in me because I want to get good sleep. I want to wake up in the morning feeling rested. I want to have good workouts. So at that time, I usually tell her, let's start adding the superfoods and start getting a lot of blueberries, a lot of sweet potatoes, a lot of avocados, all those type of things. Salads. We're adding more kale to the salad, things like that. So we start adding the superfoods in, and then within about two weeks, it pretty much becomes, okay, it's superfoods only. And you got to think about eating foods as green as you can pick. If you could pick it off of a tree and eat it, that's how you want to eat it. You don't want to overcook stuff too much. You don't want to put a bunch of salt and pepper. You don't want to retain any water. We're trying to get the water through our system. So that's the three types of, I guess, like, shopping that we do to Put foods in our body. And in the week of the fight, let's say I walk around at 190, 190 ish and I fight at 170, which is what I do fight at. I try to get down within 10 pounds. I try to get down to about 180 for fight week. And then the rest of the stuff for fight week is pretty much a water cleanse. You know, a lot of fighters, we do a water cleanse and we do. I'll do like 2 gallons one day, 2 gallons the next day. And then that gets your immune, your system flowing. You're pissing all the time, you're using a bathroom all the time. You sweat profusely, but it's getting everything, it's getting your metabolism, everything just flowing, flowing, flowing. Two gallons a day, two gallons a day. And once you get it up to speed, then you start taking the water out. Then I go down to 1 gallon the next day. Half a gallon the next day, a quarter gallon the final day. After five days, the sixth day is my weigh in day. So that day there's no water. And that's when I do my weight cut. I'm punching the bag in sweats. I put albilene on my body to open up my pores. I'll take a sauna bath with Epsom salt, with green rubbing alcohol. All these different little tricks I can go on and on, but there's a lot of different tricks. But you're pretty much doing. If I weigh 190 and I fight at 170, 10 pounds of that is from dieting and the other 10 pounds is just water sweat. You make weight, rehydrate, fight the next day. We're allowed 24 hours. So that's pretty much the way that I do it. Like I said, a lot of guys these days, they have nutritionists that are helping them do it in other ways. But that's the majority. The generalized way that most fighters are making weight these days, man, that's a trip.

So what is the deal with the hot tub? What does the hot tub do? I've always wondered.

The hot tub is my preferred way to do it. I don't. Coming up, man. I used to do all like, I used to do physical work. I would do 15 on the treadmill, 15 on the bike, 15 shadowboxing. And it just was beating my body up. Too much feeling. I would do 15 minutes only because you didn't want any particular muscle to be sore. So you're switching up the activity at 15 minutes, but you're still burning out your legs. Because like when the order you get to. I feel like your legs are the first thing that kind of go. Your legs are getting weak when you're nervous or when you're tired or fatigued. So what the Jacuzzi does is you're getting in there and you're just sitting in super, super hot water with Epsom salt. Epsom salt already is like a.

So you add it in there.

Add a big bag of Epsom salt into the water. Yeah, Add the Epsom salt. It gets rid of, what's it called, like, soreness.

Okay. Yeah, no, Epsom salt's amazing. I just didn't know if the hotel would know, let you do that. I'm sure. Yeah.

You go buy a bag of Epsom salt at Rite Aid, fill up the bathtub boiling hot, as hot as you can take it. Put the Epsom salt in green. Rubbing alcohol is supposed to help open up your pores and make you sweat faster. Albilene is like a makeup cleaner that you could buy at Rite Aid and you put that on your body as well. That opens up your pores as well. Or there's some stuff they make now called sweet sweat, which is actually the same thing. It opens up your pores. But if you don't have sweet sweat, you just go to the store and get Albileen or makeup remover. It opens up your pores, you sweat faster. So you jump in the hot water, you begin sweating and sweating and sweating and you just keep turning the water on. When the water cools down, you turn it back up and you just keep the sweat going for as long as you can. After that, maybe you jump out, punch the bag, whatever. Do some shadow boxing in your hotel room. Jump back in the water. However long you have to do it, you have to figure it out. But generally, if you're sweating pretty good, you could lose a pound every 10 minutes. So, you know, you just have to do the math. If you have, you know, an hour until weigh ins, you get about six pounds right there. So, you know, sometimes people cut weight from one to three hours trying to get those 10 pounds off. Yeah, brutal.

Yeah. I saw your boy, I think his name's Casey, using shadow boxing with the heater on in his car at the sports.

We locked them in the. It was like a 95 degree day. His fight about a month ago here in LA. He needed two pounds to go, so it was hot outside. We put him in a locked, locked him in the car parked in the middle of the parking lot and he just shadow boxed in there and he came in, he was 172. He needed to make 170. He jumped on a scale half an hour later, he was 168. So he actually overcut four pounds within like half an hour just from sweating, man.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Nice. All right, well, that's, that's good to know. So I, Yeah. Another thing, I mean, you. You just like, is there obviously you don't want to shed any light. I'm just like, you. You come across me as this, you know, mild manner dude. And you talk about this switch. Everybody talks about the switch. Once you enter that ring, that, that walk in has got to be just. I mean, you know, if you want to describe the adrenaline walking in, is it cool, is it controlled or is it just. I mean, are you kind of like, are you become like just does that switch it when you enter the. Enter the, you know, the arena or does it when you enter the cage that really, it hits home that like, we're about to rock, man.

You know, one thing I've learned about the. The walkout is it's somewhat. It's evolved for me. And I think everything and everybody in life, they evolve. At some point, something becomes a little bit more comfortable, it becomes a little more natural and walk off. For me, I used to be real high on, especially when I corner my guys. When I'm cornering one of my teammates, I always tell them, like when we're. When they're behind the curtain, you know, and the guys are holding you back, and then you hear your song come on, your music, your walkout music, and then everybody's saying, go, go, go, go. You know, and you come out there. I used to always tell my guys, like, find whatever makes you the most confident in the world. Find. If it's a song that's in your head, if it's a memory of something you did, if it's whatever it is that just makes you feel like a million bucks and confident, find that memory and then just hold on to it. Don't let it go. Because a lot of guys, they'll have a great warmup and we'll have the mental talk and they get in the mode and then somebody tells a joke that wasn't funny and they, they want to be nice and laugh at it. And I'm like, don't laugh at that. You're about to go fight in the cage, what are you this lame ass joke for? You know what I mean? It's like fighting. It's the one time that you Don't. Everything is about you. It's all about you. Your whole team, your tournament, they're all there for you. So you don't. You can be rude. You can. Whatever it is, doesn't matter. I always tell guys, look, if you want to be a dickhead right now, I'm not gonna take it personal. Whatever's gonna make you the best fighter in the world, be that guy. And when you walk out there and people are wanting to give you fives or they're flicking you off, whatever it does, don't keep. Stay, like in blinders, like a horse. Don't lose that. That energy. You can see. You get in the cage, you get in there, fight. Keep that. Because that's however confident you are, you know, it's how good you fight.

Yeah.

With that said, man, having, you know, had about 30 fights in my career between Muay Thai and MMA, it's changed. It's changed. I still believe in that same concept, but I've gotten so used to the walkout now that I feel like now, man, I could look around in the crowd and look for my wife if I want. You know what I mean? I could look, I could stare the guy down and who's already sitting in the cage staring back at me the whole way, I could sprint to the end, you know? Now I do different things, man, and I feel like it's just. It's a familiarity now. I've done it so many times that I know. I know what to expect. I've been scared, I've been excited. I ran there. I found my wife before. I've been through those emotions. But whatever you do to get there, it's still a pretty amazing feeling. I mean, if you're playing in a Super bowl or something, that's. That's the, you know, the super bowl is the super bowl. But if you're playing in any other sport, it's an amazing feeling to be at the highest level of whatever sport you're in and having thousands of people there cheering you on. The thing that I think sets fighting apart is because obviously you're one on one right there. You're literally locked into a cage against somebody who's trying to literally physically do you harm. So if you have a bad day, it's night, night. You know, when you're walking out there, this could be the best day of my life or the worst day of my life, and you just have to accept that and move on. And I've always, every night before my fight, I think about, all right, man, if this guy knocks me out, drops elbows on my face, breaks my nose, and they carry me out on a stretcher. And everybody, millions of people around the world, see that. It's going to be a big blow to my heart. I'm going to be devastated. But I'm willing to take that risk and go in there and accept that and go in there and try to achieve glory. So once you've accepted that, it's just. It's a mixture of emotion, like I said, it's anxiety, nervous, excitement, scared, you know, all those things, and you just have to go in there and accept it. And it's an amazing feeling of thousands of people, your songs playing, you. You see the guy and you know that you've done 8, 10 weeks of work, busted your ass, now you have 15 minutes to prove it. So it's kind of like when life throws you an opportunity, man, you got to make the most of it. So that's what I try to do every time, man. But it's a great feeling. It really is.

So I do have to ask, is there any significance to Gangsters paradise that you realize? Because that hasn't changed, right. Since day one for you, right?

Yeah, I think it's just a dope song, man. Yeah. I come out to Gangster's paradise, you know what it was? It was like, I've always thought it was a dope song. I gotta be honest, man, I fell. I'll be completely honest. A fellow welterweight, Jake Ellenberger, in the ufc. I mean, I might fight this guy one day, but I saw him come out to Gangsters paradise, like, five years ago, came out, and I was like, oh, I love that song. Like this. He went out there and he murdered the guy.

He murdered some dude last night. Yeah.

Oh, yeah, yeah. He beat Matt Brown last night. Yeah. So, yeah, he murdered the guy after coming up against his paradise. And I was like, that was dope, man. Like, I'm coming up, and I came out to it. I murdered the guy in my fight. And since then, I was like, you know what, man? Like, this has always been my jam. I just had good energy with it. Let me just stick with it. So I've been coming out the Gangsters paradise for, like, five years now, man. And it's just kind of like, you know what I love, too? I love when I get fans that tweet me and they're like, man, honestly, the whole night was dope. But when you came out to Gangsters paradise, we all went crazy. And, like, I love hearing that. That, like, people in the Stands. They love that song. They love the music. Like, they get buck when they hear it, so it's fun to get the crowd excited, you know.

Bro, Coolio tweeted. You didn't.

Yeah, exactly, exactly. Started following me, tweeting me. I thought, man, I was. Yeah, I was like, the biggest thing for me, Julio Coolio's following me, man.

That's awesome, man. So, yeah, just. How did. Because you're still repped by the. The biggest agency in Seoul, right? In New York. So how does that work, in my opinion? I don't. The UFC is growing rapidly, so it's just. It makes sense to me, you know, to. To rep not only you. It's always made sense to me. We've even had conversations in the past, and we, like, it's. It's. It's great. It's. It's incredible on both sides. Like, the whole model fighter thing, especially now that you're doing it and. And killing it. So, like, how was that work with. With Soul? And now, like, the off time right now, are they, like. I'm sure, like, you know, if you want to expand on the Versace campaign, which. Congratulations. That's just.

Thank you, brother.

That's sick, dude. You're welcome. Yeah. So, I mean, if you want to expand on that, like, how does that work? Because it's. It's such a. It's a. It's such a growing sport, and then you're doing it, too. So I like it. It makes sense that Soul, you know, would probably be able. It's probably an easy, easy sell, you know?

Yeah. I mean, I feel like, you know what? Some of the stuff that we're doing with Seoul is, in a way, groundbreaking. And what I mean by that is this. There's lots of fighters who have become big stars, and there's lots of fighters that have transitioned into the acting world. You have Ronda Rousey, the new welterweight champion of the world, Tyron Woodley. I mean, he's been in a number of movies. He just. He just did the. What's that movie? Compton or whatever.

Straight out of Compton.

Straight out of Compton, he was in that movie. He's done a couple movies now, so there's a lot of Kung Lee as well as in a bunch of movies. But anyway, there's a lot of fighters that are. You know, you see him doing commentary now on Fox Sports 1. You see him in the movies, but you've never seen a professional. You've never really seen many professional athletes in general transition into the modeling world or, like, high Fashion or fragrance, much less a fighter. I've never seen a fight. I don't think there's ever been a fighter in history doing, like, fragrance campaigns or working with the best photographers in the world. So that was kind of the. That was kind of the angle that we wanted to hit. You know, I kind of had this modeling background, and in Seoul being my agency in New York, Jason, he's like a mastermind at this, and he got with my manager, aj who's my fight manager, and they kind of put a game plan together and they got me, instead of getting me these jobs left and right and working with, like, really well, really well known photographers, you know, Bruce. Bruce Weber and Stephen Klein and all these great guys, man. And he put together this great book for me. And instead of booking me jobs left and right, man, it was crazy. And I had this show, for anybody listening who'd never seen it, I had this series, this web series called the Brahma. The Brahma series. And it was pretty much like, you know, maybe five minute episodes kind of building up to my fights and everything. Kind of showed a little bit of my personal life. And long story short, that Brahma series helped me book a huge Versace campaign that afforded me to buy my first home that I'm in with my family now and everything. So it was a really a huge point in my career, part of my life, because I was fighting in the ufc, being fighting in the UFC on tv. My agent in New York, Jason, saw me fight and signed me with them. And then the next step was get, like I said, get the photographers, let everybody meet you, and then get you a huge campaign. And what happened was the Brahma series, which was the webisode that I was putting out this content before and after my fights, it was Bruce. It was sent to Bruce Weber, who's you probably know, is a very, very famous photographer, one of the most famous and successful photographers in the world. And he saw it. He saw my episode, and I had just fought in San Diego right before that and won my fight. And he was like, you know what? I love this guy. He kind of got. He got. He got to see my family and me and my fights. And it sparked something in him. And he said, you know what? I want to do my next. He was shooting the Versace campaign in a couple months, and he said, you know what? I'm going to do the Versace campaign. I'm going to do, like a fight theme. I want Alan Joban, who's a fighter, to be in it. I want to have like, he kind of. I don't want to say wrote it around me, but the Brahma series, I think in some way inspired his vision for this Versace campaign, which is a fragrance coming out next week, Dylan Bleu. And so I went to New York and I shot it, and they had some other cool guys there and a supermodel girl that we shot with and everything. And it ended up being this really, really big fragrance campaign. And like I said, it comes out. It just released like two days ago in London. So I'm starting to see pictures, like in the subways and billboards that people are sending me in London. And it drops here in the states August 9th. It'll be a new Versace fragrance called Dylan Blue. And, yeah, I'm excited to see that all came from doing what I've been doing the entire time, man. Staying. Keeping my nose down, staying busy, planting seeds. Planting seeds. Eventually. Eventually, there's hard. This bad good days and bad days, but eventually sticking with it. I got seen. I got signed to an agency. That agency sent me to the right guy, the right photographer, saw my story, saw my episode. It landed me the campaign. And, you know, so it's just going back to what we talked about on here, like, perseverance, man. Sticking with it. Even though you're like, man, I feel like I'm doing everything right, but I'm not receiving the money, I'm not receiving the accolades. I'm not. I feel successful, but I'm still paying rent in my apartment and I can't afford to do this and that. I feel like I've learned from this, that if you feel like you're doing everything right and, you know, you're doing everything in your powers, eventually it's going to come. It just takes. It takes time sometimes. Keep planting the seeds, keep putting that energy out there. It'll come back to you.

I first. I mean, that's just. And you and I talked about it and you're like, I mean, the goal. I mean, you pointed out David. David Beckham and how it went over from sport to different. I think, yeah, I think it was a fragrance. Armani Exchange. Was it Armani Exchange? I forget what it was, but it's just.

He is probably the guy. Exactly. I said not that many athletes have done fragrance, but he's the guy that we kind of mapped this all out because he's the guy that broke the. Broke the barriers and signed her for, you know, and in all. All sports.

Nah, I mean, that. That I didn't know it was Weber, who shot that. That's. That's huge, man. It's got to be so difficult for you. I mean, that's the most. I'm an excited dude, and, like, when things happen, I like it. They just blow up and pop off. You've been very good at kind of like, ah, you know, it just really. Just keeping it on the wraps, dude. And then that's. That's sick, dude, because it did. It did come. I mean, there was, like, a little bit of rumbling around, I think October of last year, and you kind of just like, talked about it, but just like, next question type stuff. But, man, that's. That's huge, dude.

I hate it, man. I want to be like you. I want to. I want to build up and jump for joy, but it's like, you know how these things are. We shot that a year ago, and they were like, you can't say a thing. I had to sign a release now that it released in London. I can see. So I shot it with Gigi. Gigi Hadid, she's like this.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Me and Gigi shot it. So she's like. If you're unfamiliar with her, she's like the top supermodel right now. She's kind of the it girl. She's in every campaign. She even has her own fragrance out right now, I think. So I shot it with Gigi, and I had to sign one of these agreements that, you know, said, I want. I can't speak about this. I can't post any pictures from the actual shoot and all that stuff. So for a year now, I keep having to bite my tongue and act like, oh, I shot it with some random girl. You know, I can't. You know, I can't speak about it. So it's been tough. But now that they released it in London, it's nice to be able to. Be able to, you know, enjoy it again.

Dude, I'm going through something right now in two different things, and it is so hard. But it's good. I mean, if it falls through, then. Or if it happens, then it's. Yeah, it'll probably be the biggest thing. Well, definitely be the biggest thing for me. But it's. It's good, though, man. I mean, man, this. This is really cool for me. I just. I kind of wanted just a couple things that if you weren't fighting, what would you. Like? What. What other. Like, what's another big passion here is. I. I think I have an idea of what it is. But if you weren't fighting, what would you be doing, man?

That's a tough question, because I feel like. I don't know. That's a tough question, man. You might have to answer it for me, because I was pissed off. Not pissed off. I was frustrated my whole life because, like I said, I've been modeling since I was 20 years old until now. And I was like, I'm not meant to model. This isn't what I was put on earth to do. I have no control of it. Like, there's something that I've got to be good at, and I want to find it right away because I want to be the best at it. I want to know what I'm going to do that way I can master it. And so I found fighting. I said, this is it. I'm going to master. I'm going to get as good as I can. So I don't know, man. I feel like the last 10 years, all I've thought about was fighting, man. I don't know what I would be doing. I know if I lived in Louisiana still, which is where I'm from, I'd probably be in the oil field. Everybody's in the oil field. So I don't know, man. Maybe. I'm thinking you might say, maybe Bob Villa.

Was that Bob Vila?

I like to do stuff around the house, man. I'm into that, you know? Like, these walls behind me are like refurbished wood that I found at some scrap yard. I put them up on the wall.

You did that back there?

Yeah, yeah. These walls right here. Exactly. I did the fireplace, the mantle, the. The refurbishment.

Easy, man. That's. That's a skill. That's legit. Yeah. I've never seen, like, little things here and there, but I didn't know you put that. I knew. Yeah. Yeah, that's.

I'm like a handyman. I'm not. I'm not a master at anything, but I can figure out, you know, I.

Mean, that's cool, man. That's cool. So I. Let's see. Falling over here.

See?

Yeah, I. I know you got stuff you got to do. I do. I just want to say, man, Alan, thank you so much, dude. I. It's been not only a pleasure watching your success, like, genuinely. It's awesome when, like, when people are, like, seriously stoked for you. And that's how I am with you. I mean, it's just. It's fun when you win, to see people win, that you respect, witness your work ethic. I've gotten toasted on the. Remember that first time we were running in Burbank High School. Oh, we got a track star here. It was like. It was like sprint number one out of five minutes of sprints, dude. Like, the next. The next sprints. I'm huffing and puffing, coming in last, but, you know, that's. It's. What that did is it just gained amount of, you know, a huge amount of respect for you and, like, what you guys do and your work ethic, man. I'm really happy for you. The coolest thing that Nicole said is, like, you built that pointing to your house with your own hands. And I. You know, I can relate to building my business with my own hands, but, like, you have a family, and you created that yourself, man. And that's a lot of respect, man. And my. My whole audience out there, this is all about resilience and work ethic and just believing in yourself, and you did that. So nothing but. Nothing but respect for you. And really, really excited to see where this. Where this journey takes you, man.

Man, thank you, brother. Hey, and everything you just said, honestly, your professional career, which you've done with your product that I still use to this day, all the products you've given me, man, I did one of those the other day, man. I've witnessed your success. You come up with this as well, man. I love it. And I've been seeing all the workouts that you do these days, man. You're killing it with these workouts, bro. Like, I'm impressed. From the first time we did a kind of, like, caveman training session a couple years ago to the shit that you're doing now, man, it's. You're in, like, beast mode. So, man, yeah, it's been fun, man. I hope we continue this ride together.

Absolutely, man. We will. All right, man. Well, thanks again for your time. It really means a lot, and I'll talk to you soon, brother. Keep it going. All right.

Pleasure, brother.

All right, brother. See you.