UFC Fight Night 172: Eye vs. Calvillo - Predictions and Picks

#4 Featherweight: Andre Fili vs. Charles Jourdain

Andre Fili looked tremendous in his 2019 win over Sheymon Moraes

Not only will this fight provide us with a battle of two of the most hilarious nicknames in MMA – ‘Touchy’ Fili vs. ‘Air’ Jourdain – but it should also be full of excitement. Fili has been putting on some of the wildest brawls in the UFC for the best part of 7 years now, while Jourdain was part of one of 2019’s best fights against Doo Ho Choi last December.

Despite showing a massive amount of potential, ‘Touchy’ has never quite reached the top of the 145lbs division. However, it’s worth noting that the majority of his 6 UFC losses have come to genuinely great fighters – names like Max Holloway, Yair Rodriguez and Calvin Kattar, as well as hot prospect Sodiq Yusuff.

A lanky Featherweight who stands at 5’11” and has a 74” reach, Fili’s attacking style is largely based around a strong kicking game and long, straight punches. He has never really established a strong jab to maximise that reach – hence why he’s constantly involved in wild brawls – but he’s a powerful striker with a solid chin and knockout power.

On the ground too, the Team Alpha Male product is a highly dangerous fighter. Fili isn’t the best wrestler, but he’s capable of taking his opponents down from the clinch and on the ground he possesses a truly venomous ground game, able to scramble and snatch submission attempts from wild angles.

However, he’s also susceptible to smoother grapplers, too. He was smothered by Hacran Dias and Dennis Bermudez, for instance, and was also submitted by Holloway and his own mirror image, Brazilian wildman Godofredo Pepey.

How does he match with Jourdain? ‘Air’ is a little harder to judge given that we haven’t seen all that much of him in the UFC, and his debut – a loss to Desmond Green – essentially saw him outpointed by Green’s combination of a takedown threat and a solid jab.

However, his fight with Choi offered more. A wild brawl from the off, Jourdain found himself in serious trouble on more than one occasion, but he was able to hang tough and survive the punching power of ‘The Korean Superboy’, and ended up turning the tables on him with a vicious second round combination.

For me this one comes down to what Fili decides to do. If he comes in and looks for a more cerebral approach, then there’s no reason why he can’t use his length and striking skills to keep Jourdain at distance, picking him apart for a decision or a late TKO. However, if he gets too wild – and there’s every chance he does – he could find himself open to a brutal counterpunch from a man who is clearly capable of eating up punishment.

Overall it’s admittedly hard to trust Fili given his history, but in his more recent fights he’s appeared to be fighting smarter – particularly in his impressive 2019 win over notable striker Sheymon Moraes. I’m going to pick him to pull out a late TKO win here, based largely on his volume, but I wouldn’t be shocked if this went the other way.

The Pick: Fili via third round TKO