TUF 5’s Joe Lauzon Discusses Previous UFC Absence...

The Ultimate Fighter 5’s Joe Lauzon Discusses Previous UFC Absence

The entire article is spoiler-free, so don’t worry about reading it if you still haven’t seen Thursday’s debut episode or fear that we might spoil the outcome of future episodes.
Lauzon has a unique role on the show, having previously fought and defeated The Ultimate Fighter 5 coach Jens “Little Evil” Pulver. However, after that shocking victory in Pulver’s UFC return back in September, Lauzon disappeared from the UFC. We now know why.
From the interview:

BK: Since your win in your debut against Jens Pulver, why haven’t we seen you back in the UFC?

J-Lau: I eat like a fat kid, and I was sick of training. I trained to hard for the fight with Jens, that I didn’t want to be doing any more cardio for a while. On top of that, Thanksgiving and Christmas were coming, and I didn’t want to be trying to train during the holiays. Then, the show came along [The Ultimate Fighter 5] and we were waiting to see how that panned out. If I didn’t get on the show, I would have fought again by now.

BK: How has sponsorships come along since your UFC debut? Has your being cast on TUF affected things any?

J-Lau: We didn’t have any fights coming up, so we really weren’t talking with sponsors. Now that the show is on, sponsors are all asking “Well how did Joe do?” and we obviously can’t say anything. As the show starts airing, we will start talking with more sponsors.

BK: So TUF5’s all about the “little guys”, the lightweights. Always our favorites here at BloodyKnux.Com. But, if the UFC were to have a featherweight division, would you drop back down to your natural weight or are you comfortable fighting one division up?

J-Lau: I’m done with 145. It was too much of a cut for me then, and I’m a lot bigger now. I lost explosiveness and cardio at featherweight, so I am happy where I am. I will have to deal with some larger guys, but I will at least be at my best, so it will be a better fight.

Head over to BloodyKnux.com for the full story.
Lauzon comes in to the show as one of the early favorites to win it all; however, I think he will face stiff competition from Nathan Diaz and Gray Maynard, who are already considered two of this season’s favorites.