On Step At A Time: Charles Jourdain's Unplanned Journey To The UFC

Last Updated:April 18, 2026, 20:36 IST

UFC bantamweight Charles and brother Louie rose from casual kickboxing to pros, now aim for top five by 2026, stressing discipline, family life and perseverance over talent

For Charles Jourdain, the path to the UFC was never carefully mapped out – it unfolded quietly, one decision at a time, guided by instinct, curiosity, and a genuine love for fighting. From those early days in a kickboxing gym alongside his brother to formative experiences in Thailand, Jourdain’s journey has been shaped more by action than intention.

In a conversation with News18 Sports, he reflects on how his mindset has evolved over the years – the lessons drawn from an unpredictable style, and the discipline that now grounds it. He also reflects on life beyond the cage, and how fatherhood has reshaped not just his priorities, but his sense of self.

EXCERPTS

What inspired you to take up MMA and become a professional fighter?

We were fairly young, me and my brother – my brother Louis, who joined the UFC recently as well. We were fairly young, watching martial arts movies, and as you get to 14-15, you see more people fighting or getting into intense altercations. And the question was, ‘What could we do if something like that happened to us?’ So, we decided to join a fitness kickboxing school just for fun – to learn how to fight, punch, and everything.

And after a year, the guy’s like, ‘Do you want to fight?’ And we’re like, ‘Sure.’

And then we got a couple of fights, and it’s like, ‘OK, do you want to be pro? And then ‘You want to go to Thailand and fight there? Sure! And now do you want to join the UFC?’ Sure!’

So it was not a distant thing (long-term plan). We were not thinking about the UFC at all. It was just that we loved fighting, we were training, and one thing led to another. And here we are, the first duo of brothers in the UFC from Canada.

You’re known for being creative and unpredictable. How do you balance creativity with discipline?

Well, of course I needed more balance. So as a guy with a record of 17-8-1 in the UFC, you can see that sometimes creativity was a blade with two sides, meaning you can get cut from both sides. So now I’m much more structured, much more disciplined.

Everything when it comes to weight, mentality, discipline, and everything is going according to plan. But it doesn’t take away from my ability to make spectacular shows. My last two showings at bantamweight were incredible – I finished a guy who had never been finished, Victor Henry, and destroyed David Grant with a flying knee guillotine. So the fire will be brought upon itself. I don’t have to force anything.

How does your fight-week preparation now compare to before?

Before, I would stress during the week because I felt like there were some stones that weren’t turned. There were some shortcuts that I took, and in fight week, I’d be like, ‘Oh, I need to study, I need to do all the things I didn’t do during camp.’ Now, my only concern, which is not even a concern, is just making weight, doing it like a professional, and then it’s fight day. I’m not really carrying much stress around.

What’s the biggest misconception people have about your fight IQ?

Maybe they think I’m thinking during the fight but I’m not. Everything is programmed. There’s three parts of your brain during a fight. One is the human brain, which would be utilized for analysing. But if you analyze, you’re one step behind.

Then there’s the primal brain, which makes you emotional, like, ‘He hit me, I’m mad."

And this is where your cardio gets hit because it makes the blood pump. And then there’s the third part of your brain, which they call the central computer, where everything you see in the cage is just programmed by hours and hours long before the fight.

So when people say, ‘Oh my God, Charles saw that during the fight!’ I didn’t see it. I programmed my body to execute when something’s coming. I’m not planning on getting you into a guillotine choke, but if you give me your head, I was programmed to take it.

What surprised you most when you moved to the bantamweight division?

I would say what surprised me the most is I that was forged in a very different fire. I was fighting guys who were 170 to 180 pounds, and now I’m fighting guys who are maximum 160ish. So for me, when I’m in the clinch with these guys, I’m like, ‘OK, I was forged in a different fire.’

Where do you see yourself in the bantamweight division by the end of 2026?

Top five for sure. I’m going to rack up three other wins, maybe two, depending on how you get out of these fights and how much time I want to stick at home with my wife and travel and everything. But for sure, I’m reaching the top five by the end of 2026.

How has becoming a father influenced you as a fighter?

Oh, it’s the best. And actually, it took away from my identity as a fighter, because now I’m not just a father who fights – I’m a father, a husband. And I’m more connected to my real life, because my real life is not fighting. I fight three times a year. So, if the only thing that matters for you is that result in that fight, when you’re back home, you’re stressing over something that’s coming, and you’re not connected to the present.

The greatest gift my son gave me was the ability to understand that life tastes much better when you’re thinking about other people instead of your own little person. I’m much more aware of my surroundings and what’s important in life.

What’s something fans wouldn’t expect about you?

I read a lot, because when you go on social media, you see those eight-second clips. So people might think I’m a very flamboyant individual in life and I’m saying very dumb stuff all the time. But it’s very hard to make a valid point in an eight-second video. When I do long format, especially in French, people are always saying the same thing: “Oh my God, you speak well, you speak with good knowledge, you’re a very deep individual when it comes to interesting conversation."

But like I said, if you only see the part on social media, you need to understand that eight-second clips are made to take your attention very quickly, and we cannot go into Adlerian psychology in those eight-second talks.

When it’s all said and done, what do you want fans to remember about you?

More than my fighting style, what they can take away from me is that I never gave up. It’s not because I had an inconsistent record that you cannot get stronger and that I have nothing special. I’m just a man who worked really hard, and it got to a point where working really hard was not the only thing that mattered – it was making the right choice.

And the right choice was to go to bantamweight, be more present with many things in my life. I grew as a man tremendously, and my point is you can take away from me that I’m nothing special – and you can do it too.

Watch UFC Fight Night – Burns vs. Malott on 19th April 2026 from 5:30 AM IST live on Sony Sports Ten 2 SD & HD, Sony Sports Ten 3 SD & HD (Hindi), Sony Sports Ten 4 SD (Tamil, Telugu & Kannada).

News sports other-sports On Step At A Time: Charles Jourdain's Unplanned Journey To The UFC

Read More