Fireworks on the cards for the UFC’s inaugural event in Paris | Jourdain vs Wood Preview

This coming Saturday, the UFC will leave their imprint in the Paris, France as they host their first event in the nation since it’s legalisation of MMA back in 2020. Atop the card see’s a heavyweight showdown between France’s own, Cyril Gane and fan favourite, Tai Tuivasa.

A fight outside of the star studded main and co-main event that is certainly going to win over the fans in Paris is a featherweight clash between Charles Jourdain vs Nathaniel Wood. Both fighters are coming in off short hiatus’ having both fought back in July.

In his last outing, “The Prospect” Wood put on a career best performance in his featherweight debut, utterly dominating Charles Rosa. Jourdain on the other-hand found himself on the wrong side of an extremely close decision to PFL’s most recent signing, Shane Burgos.

The aforementioned Nathaniel Wood has had as torrid a time as anyone during the last three years. Since his loss to Casey Kenney back at the end of 2020, the Londoner had been booked in another three bouts, with them all falling through. Because of his struggle finding a dance partner, Wood decided a move up in weight would benefit his career, and allow for him to stay more active. Rewinding back to the 23rd of July, and Wood finally found himself locked inside the cage once again, and in his hometown of London.

The performance that he proceeded to put on was one of his career best, despite having been out of the Octagon for two years. There were a lot of questions surrounding Wood’s move to 145, and whether his size and frame would be too small for the 145lb division. Rosa is a fighter that has fluctuated between the featherweight and lightweight division, marking him as one of the bigger featherweights in the division.

The theme of the fight was the ferocious chopping leg kicks from Wood. In the 3 rounds, Wood targeted 31% of his strikes to the legs of Rosa, landing 31 of 35. On several occasions, Rosa’s leg gave way from underneath him making it extremely tough for him to put any attacks of his own together.

On the other-side will stand Charles “Air” Jourdain. The Quebec native’s exciting fight style has earned him a lot of fans during his three year career with the UFC. Unfortunately for the 26-year-old, he’s only been able to string together consecutive victories just once in those three years, and has fought a total of nine times. In his last outing though, despite coming away with the L next to his name, he once again won over the fans as he put on an electrifying performance, and one that divided the opinion of the fans scoring the bout.

In his bout with Burgos, leg kicks were something Jourdain had to become accustomed to, as “Hurricane” Shane targeted 47% of his attacks to the legs of Jourdain. That may be something he has to look out in his fight with Wood, as Wood found such success in it against Rosa. Like Rosa, Jourdain is a fighter who has also previously fought at lightweight and was previously the interim lightweight champion at TKO.

Despite Jourdain being 3 inches taller than Wood, they both hold the same 69.0″ reach. It is hard to imagine that Wood makes a big switch in his game-plan from his last outing, and I imagine he will utilise his impressive leg kick just as much in this bout. Jourdain may look to use his clear size advantage in clinch exchanges, with his hope being that he can bully Wood in those situations.

No matter how the fight may play out, I am happy to guarantee that it will produce absolute fireworks, and has the potential for Fight of the Night for the fans in Paris. Who do you see taking the victory? Let us know your fight predictions!