After Bruce Buffer‘s tongue tie caused Sean Woodson to run the gamut of emotions immediately after his fight against Charles Jourdain at UFC 297, Woodson said he has landed on “cloud nine” after soaking everything in.”
“I’m usually my worst critic,” Woodson told MMASucka. “Considering the crazy camp I had, the circumstances, the tough weight cut and all that, and the caliber of opponent, I’m happy with the win. Normally, I’d be super critical of myself. But I beat a killer on his off night, so I’ll take it. I’m happy with it.”
Woodson defeated Jourdain via split decision in Toronto, Canada. When Buffer was declaring the judges’ chosen winner, he meant to say “Sean,” but people confused it for “Charles” – including Woodson and Jourdain themselves. Jourdain thought he had won the fight and Woodson thought he had lost until Daniel Cormier brought Woodson over to tell him he had actually won.
One of the weirder moments as Charles Jourdain and Sean Woodson mishear Bruce Buffer announce the winner of their fight… pic.twitter.com/pHXJcuZtlZ
— AFeldmanMMA (@afeldMMA) January 21, 2024
Woodson said the emotional range he felt there is “so hard to put into words.”
“I’ve never experienced anything like that in my life or my fight career,” he said. “You can tell from watching it. I rewatched the clip a million times. For those five to 10 seconds, I legitimately knew I had lost that fight … After the judges had read their cards and I saw the split, I’m like ‘Damn man, I’m in Canada.’ And then when Bruce Buffer, it sounded to me like he said ‘Charles’. When I listen back to it, I can clearly hear him say, ”The Sniper’ Woodson,’ but in that moment, once I thought I heard ‘Charles,’ I was done listening. I was heartbroken and upset and getting ready to walk out of the cage.”
Woodson thought Cormier was just shaking his hand and telling him to keep his head up, but he was surprised when Cormier held onto his hand and told him he won.
“I couldn’t believe what was going on. I wasn’t trying to be all cinematic or trying to make it like a movie and act like I didn’t hear. I really thought the scorecards were Charles. They said I won. I went from being the lowest to lows to extremely high. It’s something I’ll never forget.”
Woodson, before the cards were read, thought he did enough to beat Jourdain but was worried because he realized he was in Jourdain’s home country.
“I’ve seen time and time again that when you’re fighting a guy in his hometown, sometimes you’ve gotta do more than enough. I’m sure any fighter will tell you, when you’re in there live and in the moment, unless you’re being extremely dominant, it’s hard to really gauge how the fight is going or how the judges may be viewing the fight.”
Woodson has since rewatched the fight and said he should have been the unanimous winner on the three judges’ scorecards. He said it would have “100%” been a robbery if he had lost.
Woodson also said there was extra satisfaction in beating Jourdain after some of the memes he saw Jourdain post on Instagram before the fight.
“Oh, 100%. Hell yeah. 100%,” Woodson said. “I watched all camp, that dude constantly post memes about me and post the little cute stuff and constantly being a little comedian and trying to make it seem like he wasn’t worried about me at all. I definitely feel like he underestimated me. I definitely feel like he thought he shouldn’t have been fighting me and he should have had a ranked opponent or somebody with a name. It definitely felt disrespected by him so it definitely made the victory sweeter, for sure.”
Woodson felt he did a good job halting Jourdain’s onslaught in the fight.
“If you watch any of Charles’ other fights, I don’t think you can find another fight where he was that hesitant or he was that reluctant to press forward. In all of his fights, he comes forward, he’s super aggressive, he has a really violent style. But you can clearly see in that fight he saw some things he didn’t like. He was making reads and didn’t like what he was seeing or what he was feeling. He definitely was uncomfortable and not so sure of himself and just wasn’t confident standing in front of me. I can’t remember how many takedowns he went for, but how many times in a Jourdain fight have you seen that guy trying to snatch up single legs and try and take guys down? I don’t think ever. As always, with anybody, not just Charles, I feel like I did a really good job with my feints and keeping him guessing the whole time and keeping him on the outside and not letting him close that distance on me.”
Woodson does not have a particular opponent in mind for his next bout and said he would fight anyone the UFC gives him, adding that he is a company man. He does want a quick turnaround, however. If a match-up doesn’t come “soon,” Woodson said he would look at the featherweight rankings to see who is free. He’d like a ranked opponent, at that.
“I’ll start making some noise if I don’t get nothing soon. Because of going into that Jourdain fight, because he was so adamant about getting a top-15 guy, and now that I beat him, I feel like I’m definitely deserving of a top-15 guy. I’m definitely looking to get somebody in the top-15 for sure.”
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