Las Vegas — Lightweight Jalin Turner is not a fan of roller coasters, but he’s been on one of late.
“Life has been a roller coaster, definitely a roller coaster. I don’t like roller coasters, but it’s been one. I’m riding a good wave right now, so it’s all good,” Turner (14-8) said during Wednesday’s UFC 313 media day. Asked about the nature of that roller coaster, “outside, inside, revolving, around it. Not too much I really want to speculate on, but just to give you a gist, yeah, I’ve been going through it,” replied Turner, without getting into specifics.
Turner, a.k.a. “The Tarantula,” is a towering 155’er paired up with another lanky lightweight in Ignacio Bahamondes. Chile’s Bahamondes has had a hot hand of late, with two straight Performance of the Night bonuses. He’s got a full head of steam coming off Noche UFC in September, where he finished Manuel Torres.
“I feel like that was exactly what was in the mind’s of the matchmakers when this fight got put together,” Turner stated, asked about the booking. “I’m coming off of a layoff, he has all this hype, and I’m right here.”
In his almost one-year layoff, Turner has shored up his grappling game. As he noted, he started fighting at 18, while others have trained in various disciplines since childhood. He’s returning this Saturday to a very familiar arena, the T-Mobile in Las Vegas. It may not have all the comforts of home, but it’s familiar territory.
As Jalin Turner, who has fought at the Las Vegas venue seven times since joining the UFC in 2018, put it, “Vegas is dang near my second home. I’m going to have to move out here soon.” Yet despite having a pretty set routine after so many trips to Las Vegas, things are different ahead of UFC 313.
“This fight week has been different. This fight week my routine has been completely different, because my weight was really good. I got to enjoy more things, I was out hiking in nature a little bit more. It’s been fun. It’s been fun,” Turner told Cageside Press. “I’ve been gone for almost a year man, I just came back and I just wanted to soak up every moment of this. Being in front here, talking to you guys, I gotta realize, I’m about to be 30. I’m not going to be doing this for too much longer in my life, so I just want to enjoy it as much as possible, just soak up every single moment, because it’s going to be gone one day.”
Watch the full UFC 313 media day appearance by Jalin Turner above.
