Jalin Turner claims he “didn’t have a choice” taking short-notice fight against Bobby Green at UFC Austin

Jalin Turner says he didn’t have much of a choice but to accept the short-notice fight against Bobby Green at UFC Austin.

Green was originally supposed to fight Dan Hooker in a five-round co-main event. But, less than two weeks before the fight, it was revealed Hooker suffered an arm injury and was forced out of the bout. Then, on nine days’ notice, it was revealed that Jalin Turner stepped up on short notice and the fight will remain at 155lbs.

It was a bit of a surprise that Turner was the one who took the fight as he didn’t call for the fight on social media like others did. According to Turner, he too was surprised, and admits he turned it down at first before getting a call back telling him he pretty much had to take it.

“I feel like I didn’t have a choice not to take it,” Turner said at UFC Austin media day.

Jalin Turner also believes Bobby Green vs. Jared Gordon 2 made more sense, so he’s still confused as to why the UFC pressed him so much to take the short-notice fight.

“I’m trying to figure out the same damn thing, because I wasn’t saying nothing. I was like, ‘Ah, go ahead. Let somebody else handle it.’ I think it’s just because I’m ranked. They want somebody in the rankings, and who else is really saying something? Terrance said something, but he’s not in the rankings, so they probably didn’t want to do that,” Turner added. “Shoot, I think I heard RDA’s name thrown in there, but he wasn’t going to make the weight. Jared Gordon, he stepped up, too? Man, they should’ve made that fight. Why throw me in there?”

But, as Jalin Turner says, he is ranked so it remains a high-profile matchup for Bobby Green.

Turner enters the fight on a two-fight losing streak and coming off back-to-back split-decision losses to Dan Hooker and Mateusz Gamrot.