It is good to see Wood make up for lost time, particularly in a
scintillating matchup like this. A Brad
Pickett protege, London’s Wood came to the UFC as a hyped
bantamweight prospect and quickly lived up to his billing with some
impressively well-rounded wins to start off his Octagon career.
However, 2020 was a bit of a setback. John Dodson
managed to score a come-from-behind knockout against Wood, and
after a rebound win over John
Castaneda, he seemed to have little answer for the quicker
counter-heavy game of Casey
Kenney. From there, various issues kept Wood out of action
until July, a return that saw him start a full-time move up to
featherweight. Wood looked excellent in a dominant decision win
over Charles
Rosa, seemingly helped greatly by the speed advantage his new
weight class provides. He gets a much tougher test against Quebec’s
Jourdain, who continues to keep an active schedule. At 364 days
since his fight against Julian
Erosa, this marks the fifth trip to the Octagon for the
Canadian within a year. Jourdain came to the UFC as a relatively
structureless fighter with an approach built entirely around
hunting for a finish, but he has honed his craft through
experience, taking fights whenever possible and looking better each
time out. The ethos of Jourdain’s fighting style is still to keep
trying things until something works, but he has shown a much better
ability to adjust to his opponents over the course of a fight, to
the point that he is usually a terror by the third round. Like
Wood, Jourdain is making a quick turnaround from a fight in July
that resulted in an instructive close loss to Shane
Burgos. The Team Tiger Schulmann export exploited Jourdain’s
questionable takedown defense—still the clearest weakness in his
game—for two rounds, only for the former TKO Major League MMA
champion to finally find some success putting on the pressure in
the third, nearly stealing the fight. Wrestling remains seemingly
the biggest question for Jourdain in this assignment. On the feet,
Wood’s own willingness to lean into his offense leaves him open to
an opponent willing to throw back with counters, something that
certainly seems to describe Jourdain. As the more durable fighter
and potentially the harder hitter, the bet is that Jourdain can
land the most impactful blows of the fight and stay ahead on the
scorecards, though this should be an entertainingly close scrap
throughout. The pick is Jourdain via decision.
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