Ex-UFC Welterweight Joslin Looks to Return

At UFC Fight Night 7in San Diego in December 2006, “Inferno” Jeff Joslin (5-3) debuted in the Octagon versus Fighters.com’s fourth-ranked welterweight Josh Koscheck (11-2).

Joslin lost by unanimous decision, but impressed UFC matchmakers enough to  earn a second match-up versus perennially tough S.O.B. “Lights Out” Chris Lytle (26-16-5) at UFC 73 in Sacramento in July 2007.

He mysteriously bailed on that fight due to an undisclosed training injury, then seemingly vanished from the UFC and MMA.

Joslin had taken a few shots to the head training for his fight versus Lytle, then bumped his noggin on the mat, according to an article published Thursday in the Hamilton Spectator.

The next day, Joslin told the Spectator, he had trouble focusing and had what he described as “a painless migraine”.

Doctors diagnosed him with a concussion and advised him to stop training until the symptoms cleared up.  A few weeks, Joslin figured.

“It took a year,” Joslin disclosed for the first time Thursday. “It wasn’t fun.”

Any time Joslin raised his heart rate, the fogginess would return, reported the Spectator.  He was unable to train, unable to fight.

Joslin is the son of three-time Canadian heavyweight karate champion Rick Joslin and a black belt in Wado Ryu Karate himself.  He’s also a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt under Romero Cavalcanti, the original “Jacaré”, and has won the Pan American BJJ Championship and the open weight division at the  Arnold/Gracie World BJJ Championships.

Fighting is what he does.

After being “exceedingly patient”, the UFC cut his contract when he could no longer fight.

But, Joslin refocused on teaching, creating a library of hundreds of training videos for the Internet.

“This is to teach [students] from scratch,” Joslin said. “How I would teach them if they came into the gym.”

After a year hiatus, Joslin has recently been able to return to training and plans to fight again soon.

“When you feel great, you really appreciate it after a year of feeling like crap,” he said.

Joslin doesn’t know if he’ll return to the UFC, but wants to fight…only, perhaps a bit differently than before.

“I might have to adapt my style,” he said. “I might have to start choking people out instead of punching them out.”