PARIS – Charles Jourdain wasn’t impressed with Nathaniel Wood’s featherweight debut.
Wood (18-5 MMA, 5-2 UFC) defeated Charles Rosa by unanimous decision at UFC Fight Night 208 in July, but Jourdain (13-5-1 MMA, 4-4-1 UFC) thinks the Brit had many occasions to finish the fight.
He said he will look to push Wood to the brink when the pair square off at Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 209 at Accor Arena in Paris. The card streams on ESPN+.
“(Wood vs. Rosa) was interesting,” Jourdain told reporters at Thursday’s UFC Fight Night 209 media day. “The calf kick, I was like, ‘Why you don’t do more? You’ve got a man who’s on one leg and he doesn’t want to fight anymore. You’re destroying him,’ and he didn’t push for the finish, which is not like me. People are calling this a striking match. I think I’m going to have to sprawl and brawl with him. That’s my guess.
“(There will be) heavy pressure from myself. I need to be aware of that speed. But I think I can break him mentally. I think Charles Rosa wasn’t pushing enough. I think he got caught by those leg kicks and it killed his confidence. I just need to push the pace from Round 1, and I think by Round 2, I can break him mentally.”
Although Wood statistically has a high finishing rate, Jourdain was critical of his most recent performance and inability to stop Rosa – something he sees as a chink in his armor.
“(I didn’t like the) fact that he doesn’t want to finish his opponent as much as big featherweights want,” Jourdain said. “He really had something given on a platter last time, and he didn’t push to finish. I don’t know if it was the stress of getting caught or whatever, but the lack of killer instinct, I think, is his biggest weakness.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 209.
