Alan Jouban not sure Jiri Prochazka best at 205 with UFC 327 win

With Alex Pereira relinquishing his belt, Alan Jouban isn't sure becoming champion solidifies Jiri Prochazka's place as light heavyweight's best.

Prochazka (32-5-1 MMA, 6-2 UFC) meets Carlos Ulberg (12-1 MMA, 9-1 UFC) for the vacant belt in the UFC 327 main event on April 11 at Kaseya Center in Miami (Paramount+).

Prochazka's lone two losses in the UFC have come in light heavyweight title fights against Alex Pereira, where he was knocked out in both of them. For that reason, Jouban isn't ready to call Prochazka the No. 1 205-pounder just yet.

"It's a tough sell," Jouban told MMA Junkie. "It's a tough sell. We love him. And we're always going to watch his fights. You can always put him in a main event. But is he the best in the world when he's obviously lost to the best guy in the world numerous times? It's a tough sell."

Ulberg comes into the fight riding a nine-fight winning streak. Jouban's issue with the City Kickboxing fighter becoming champion is slightly different.

"Ulberg, as good as he is, and as good looking as he is, and all the ladies love him – he's the hot guy in the UFC right now. He puts me to shame," Jouban said. "But he doesn't carry the name value for me right now yet. He doesn't. And when you look at that last fight that he had, and you look at the press, the build-up, the lead-up with him vs. Dominick Reyes, it was crickets. There was nothing happening. It was one of the worst – and I say this respectfully – it was one of the worst promotions we've seen by two fighters. It was crickets. They couldn't say anything exciting.

"Even if they didn't want to be disrespectful to one another, they couldn't say anything like, 'I'm going to knock him out and I know that and I believe in myself.' There was none of that there, and if you don't have a guy that can promote a fight, even if he can fight his ass off, then what do we have? And Ulberg, as amazing as he is a fighter, he's not like a guy where, 'Oh, he doesn't say much, but damn he's a dog in there.' He's not a dog. And I don't mean that in a bad way, but he's a precision counter puncher that will put your lights out. But sometimes before the knockout, you get 90 seconds of boos because there's that timidness because nobody wants to take a step."

To hear more from Jouban, check out his complete appearance on "The Bohnfire" podcast with MMA Junkie senior reporter Mike Bohn.

This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Alan Jouban: Calling Prochazka No. 1 with UFC 327 win 'a tough sell'