After disappointing debut, Jacob Malkoun focused on better performance at UFC on ESPN 22

LAS VEGAS – As far as UFC debuts go, Jacob Malkoun admits his wasn’t exactly what he expected.

“Obviously it’s not like the the easiest thing, but you slowly keep working,” Malkoun told MMA Junkie at Wednesday’s media day at the UFC Apex. “You learn from these mistakes, and you just keep going forward.”

Australia’s Malkoun made his first octagon walk at this past October’s UFC 254 event. Unfortunately, he ran into a buzzsaw in Phil Hawes and was knocked out in just 18 seconds.

Despite the disappointment of the result, Malkoun said he learned plenty from the experience.

“It’s just a lot of different things,” Malkoun said. “You just learn from, like, the build-up, you know? Not to put too much pressure on yourself because at the end of the day, winning and losing is not the end of life, so just keep training hard and just work keep working and perform. That’s the whole idea: Focus on yourself and perform.”

Malkoun (4-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC) gets a shot at redemption at Saturday’s UFC on ESPN 22, when he takes on Abdul Razak Alhassan (10-3 MMA, 4-3 UFC) at the UFC Apex. The card airs on ESPN following prelims on ESPN and ESPN+.

Alhassan is also looking to get back on track following a pair of frustrating setbacks, but Malkoun knows you can’t judge someone’s skills solely by recent results, so he’s focused simply on being at his best on Saturday night.

“(Alhassan) is a dangerous guy, but who isn’t a dangerous guy in the UFC, especially in this middleweight division?” Malkoun asked. “So you can’t really look too much into detail about the matchups and everything. You’ve just got to worry about yourself. Focus on you, and just go from there.”

To see the full interview with Malkoun, check out the video above.