TORONTO – Charles Jourdain says he’s not about to let the excitement of fighting in his home country negatively impact his performance at UFC 297.
Jourdain (15-6-1 MMA, 6-5-1 UFC) will compete in Canada for the first time in his UFC career when he takes on Sean Woodson (10-1-1 MMA, 4-1-1 UFC) in Saturday’s event at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.
With an over 85 percent finish rate, the Quebec-born fighter expects fans to be fiending for an action-packed fight.
“Yes, but I need to make sure that the fans’ thirst for blood doesn’t get mixed between mine,” Jourdain told MMA Junkie and other reporters at Wednesday’s UFC 296 media day. “I need to stay very strategic with Sean, because I think one of his most dangerous attacks is the knee down the middle, and I’m a pressure fighter. So I need to be very careful I don’t lose my composure because you guys are screaming so much.”
Jourdain admits that sometimes he can’t help it. While strategy is important, his thirst for blood overtakes it at times, but he’s working on finding the perfect balance.
“I was fortunately born with it,” Jourdain said. “I was never a very skilled fighter, but I had balls when I was younger. In TKO, I became double champ and I never had strategy during a fight. It’s like, ‘Oh, you’re fighting this guy, what’s your strategy?’ I’m like, ‘I don’t know, I’m going to punch him.’ So, I never had that much strategy.
“But now, building up with time, aging, I see that it’s very important to apply not only strategy but – you can see it, there are a lot of guys that are very good strategists when it comes to fighting, but they don’t have that extra blood thirst and unfortunately when they reach that level where you need to mix the two, it doesn’t go well for them. So, I’m blessed to have that thirst for blood.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 297.
