The most exciting fight of the upcoming UFC Edmonton card may not be the main event, co-main event, or even any of the main card bouts at all. Charles Jourdain’s bantamweight debut against Victor Henry has the potential to run away with ‘Fight of the Night’ due to both athletes’ history of violence.
Victor Henry made his UFC debut in impossible circumstances as a three-to-one underdog vs the extraordinarily talented and underrated Raoni Barcelos. Henry stood toe-to-toe in the pocket for fifteen minutes with one of the then-best unranked bantamweights in the world, and not only did he force a great fight, he won largely by having more dog in him.
That is what Henry does best, he pushes the pace and demands his foes keep up, or they get melted. Oftentimes when they do keep up it does not last the whole fight; almost nobody can match his volume.
After all, this pupil of Josh Barnett averages 8.34 significant strikes per minute in the UFC, and has landed 181 and 154 in his pair of wins that went the distance since his debut.
Henry only lost when intelligent veteran and a fighter who was world class in his prime, Raphael Assuncao, out-maneuvered him. That is not ‘Air’ Jourdain’s game.
The Canadian striking specialist is straightforward to a fault. His technical skills are good, especially his kicking game and clinch offense, but he stands tall in front of his opponents as if he and they will be equally well-positioned for the entire fight. Against talented fighters like Jean Silva, Nate Wood, and Andre Fili, to name a few, that was not the case.
I do not mean to disparage Charles. Anyone who knows me knows that he has long been one of my favorite unranked UFC fighters for action-packed fights such as when he faced Julian Erosa, Shane Burgos, and Marcelo Rojo. However, his weaknesses are too glaring to ignore.
Henry may be a brawler by nature but he knows how to set up his offense, how to fight for position, how to attack an opponent’s weaknesses. Jourdain has been undone by leg kicks in the past, which is a favored tool of Henry, as well as by wrestling, so I expect the catch(shoot????)-wrestler to try to mix it up at times.
Charles is not completely lost as a grappler, he has an especially good guillotine, but Henry will likely not be shooting head-outside double legs on him and Jourdain’s career TDD rate is below 50%. When strikers like Sean Woodson and Ricardo Ramos are able to take someone down, it’s a safe bet that Victor Henry will too.
Although he is moving down from featherweight, Jourdain will not enjoy an overwhelming size advantage, being just an inch taller. He will be the longer fighter which can be useful as he tries to keep Henry from entering the pocket, but the lack of focus on a game plan and willingness to brawl leads me to believe Charles will fail to keep his foe away from him for three rounds.
I expect a fight which is contested in a variety of realms, from the mat to the feet to the clinch, and which has the potential to be exciting in each. This clinching will not be wall-and-stall. Charles showed his clinch offense off against Shane Burgos and dirty boxing/clinch striking is a core pillar of the style Josh Barnett teaches.
The scrambles on the ground should also be entertaining, as is always the case in Victor Henry fights. He does not seek
Though I spent much of the article saying why Jourdain is worse than Henry, I do expect the fight to be competitive. Victor Henry is not a great finisher despite his dynamic offense and recent KO win of aging legend Rani Yahya, so Jourdain will likely be there for three rounds and will not fade ever.
He will have his moments, I believe, but at the end of the day Victor Henry is just a more intelligent and well-rounded fighter who has been competing against better opposition in a better division than Jourdain. It will be competitive, but Henry should still win a 30-27 or 29-28 decision, with an outside shot at a submission win.
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