Charles Jourdain is focused on what he wants.
“So it might sound weird, but I need some head,” Jourdain recently told MMA Junkie.
As much as Jourdain (17-8-1 MMA, 8-7-1 UFC) loves double entendres, he loves guillotine chokes. Should he get one April 18 vs. Kyle Phillips when the UFC goes to Winnipeg, he’ll tie Nate Diaz’s all-time record for wins via that method.
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“I’m going to break that,” Jourdain told MMA Junkie on Tuesday. “I’ll need to. One of my friends was like, ‘Well, the odds are not good anymore.’ I said, ‘You know what? If I get a knee on him, like with Davey Grant, instead of getting a TKO, I’ll jump on the guillotines because I want to break that record.’ That’s funny. Because when you’re TKOing a guy, you can just jump on a guillotine as they are flappy. That’s what I did with Grant. I was doing ground-and-pound, and I was like, ‘He’s almost out. I’ll keep punching.’ Then he gave me his head, and I was like, ‘Let’s pull the trademark.’ I jumped on the guilly. I can hurt the guy enough to jump on the guilly, so yeah. Maybe even if the odds are bad, I’ll go and chase some head.”
Jourdain vs. Phillips (12-4 MMA, 6-3 UFC) is the co-main event and an important bout for two bantamweights jostling to break into the top 10 in one of the promotion’s most competitive divisions. Not only that, but Jourdain gets to attempt it in his home country in a stylistic matchup that he loves.
“I didn’t expect it would’ve been Kyler,’ Jourdain said. “It’s been a long time since we knew about Kyler. I think it was early January when we knew it was Kyler Phillips. It was just a matter of when and where. … Phillips is a fantastic fighter. They call him ‘The Matrix’ because of his ability to throw that spinning kick fast. He does all of his backflips – a very athletic man. But when it comes to skills, I don’t think he’s the most impressive-at-one-aspect guy. He’s good everywhere. He’s got good jiu-jitsu, good boxing, good everything. But (he’s) not exceptional anywhere. I think his best way to victory would be to draw me because when people fight ‘The Matrix,’ they chase him, to draw me, try to get a double leg, and try to stay on top and have some control time.
“I think my control time days are over since I’m not with the 145ers anymore. So now, when I have a guy in my guard, when I had Victor Henry in my guard, I’m like, ‘You guys are so small. You guys are not Doo Ho Choi and Jean Silva.’ So I think the approach of trying to make it a pressure fight against me, I don’t think it’s on the radar for a guy like Kyler. Not very sure how he’s going to approach this fight. I know how I will, and that’s the important part. But I’m very happy with the matchup. I think stylistically it clashes well and it’s the reason they put us in the co-main event because they know we can put in something very nice for the fans to see.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Charles Jourdain chases head at UFC Winnipeg to break Nate Diaz record
