Athletes
Morgan Charriere Always Brings Excitement
French Standout Talks Journey To UFC, Fan-Friendly Fighting Style
Saturday evening, Morgan Charriere makes his sixth appearance inside the Octagon when he faces off with Melquizael Costa in a compelling main card fixture in the featherweight division.
Eleven years earlier, “The Last Pirate” ventured into uncharted waters, making the walk to the cage for the first time for his professional debut, complete unsure of what the future may hold.
Preview Every Fight On Saturday's Card
“I was a kid — I was 19 years old maybe — and I had not a lot of experience, no amateur bouts,” began Charriere, thinking back to his professional debut a couple days out from his 34th start. “In France it was different — the sport was not legal — so I didn’t know what I was really going to find with this, I just knew I was going to fight without protection, just small gloves.
“I was a bit scared about my opponent because he was a 30-year-old grown man and I was a kid. He had 20 years of experience, and I didn’t know if at my young age I would be able to match (him). I was able to knock him out in the first or second round, and I was like, ‘Okay — maybe I have something for this.’ I went to this fight not in crazy shape, no great preparation, no game plan, nothing — just my fists.”
While the sport was well established in North America, Japan and Brazil and beginning to flourish in various other places, it was still banned in France, making it difficult for Charriere and others to see a means of translating their passion for fighting into a full-blown career.
Cage Warriors was thriving and serving as a pipeline for talent from the United Kingdom and Europe to make their way to the biggest stages in the sport. Charriere saw this and set his sights on breaking through in Britian, eventually joining Paul Hughes and Jordan Vucenic as an ultra-talented triumvirate that traded the title amongst themselves at the top of the featherweight division for a couple of years.
ICYMI: Max Holloway Defends His BMF Title Against Charles Oliveira At UFC 326
“First, I was just fighting to fight,” Charriere said. “One day, I see the light, I see ‘Maybe there is a pathway I could make it to England, Great Britain’ and I started looking around. My weight cut was not really good because of the things in France, and we were not taking it professionally. One day I was like, ‘I think that is what I wanna do and I will just do my best.’
“I can have 10 years of me just pushing this dream, and with 10 years, I can win all the fights, make my record good, have great finishes, and get to the big stage. It was just visualization, believing in me and trusting the process. ‘If I work every day as hard as I can, there is no way I don’t reach it,’ and I made it, so I’m pretty proud of myself for sticking to the plan.”
Day Off | Morgan Charriere
Unlock MORE of your inner combat sports fan with UFC Fight Pass! Fighting is what we live for. And no one brings you MORE live fights, new shows, and events across multiple combat sports from around the world. With a never-ending supply of fighting in every discipline, there`s always something new to watch. Leave it to the world`s authority in MMA to bring you the Ultimate 24/7 platform for MORE combat sports, UFC Fight Pass!
Day Off | Morgan Charriere
/
His overall success, exciting style, and considerable popularity put him on the UFC radar, ultimately leading to his being signed and debuting at home in Paris with a first-round stoppage win over Manolo Zecchini. In addition to thrilling the partisan crowd at Accor Arena, it nabbed Charriere a post-fight bonus and showed UFC fans what their Cage Warriors counterparts already knew: whenever the French featherweight steps into the cage, excitement follows.
“I’m pretty proud of that because I that’s always what I wanted,” Charriere said of his reputation as an all-action competitor and member of the UFC’s must-see TV contingent. “I’m doing this sport to make it enjoyable for the people, to bring new fans so that when they watch my fights, they’re like, ‘Whoa! This sport is crazy!’ or ‘Whoa! Who is this guy?’
Click Here For All Things UFC BJJ 4
“I want it where if my name is on the card, you want to look at the fight. Top opponent or not top opponent, a fight is a fight, but when I’m here, you know (you’re getting your money’s worth)… That’s how I see myself in a fight: I just want to make it enjoyable because I want to enjoy myself, and I enjoy myself when I go like this. I’m an artist when I fight. I just love to make it beautiful — beautiful violence.”
As much as he loves to compete and deliver excitement to the masses, Charriere has scaled back the number of appearances he’s making each year since he’s reached the UFC.
Saturday’s matchup with Costa will be his third appearance of 2025. He dropped a decision to Nathaniel Wood in March and rebounded with a third-round stoppage win over Nate Landwehr in Nashville in mid-July. Although he would have liked to have competed on the annual Paris card in September, Charriere and his team thought better of it, opting instead to pass on the home game in hopes of having greater success this weekend.
It was a decision made based on previous experience and not a lack of desire, as the all-action featherweight has put an increased focus on building consistency inside the Octagon after alternating results through his first five fights.
Sign Up For UFC FIGHT PASS Today!
“I’ve lost fights because I’ve taken too much on in a year and not taken care of myself, of my body because I was chasing to be on the big stage, training so hard,” Charriere said. “Even right now, I’m trying to calm myself, (telling myself) ‘You’re in. You have the experience; you have nothing to prove. You do not have to fight a lot; you can take your time, do great fights, do great training camps to have better performance to start to rack them up and have a real win streak.’
“That’s been my biggest problem — getting the win streak going — so that is my plan: get the win streak going, keep racking up performance, finishing people,” he added. “I’m taking more time between fights to enjoy life because I didn’t enjoy life for 10 years, but now I’m enjoying life and enjoying fighting.”
If the plan is to stack exciting wins in order to climb the ranks, Charriere’s victory over Landwehr is an excellent starting point.
Tied at one round each on two of three scorecards heading into the final frame (Landwehr was up 2-0 on the other), the 30-year-old rising star came out of the corner guns blazing to open the final five minutes, swinging for the fences and connecting with enough power shots to stop “Nate the Train” in his tracks just 27 seconds later.
“I think beating Nate the way I did and beating ‘Melky’ the way I see it (happening) could really catapult me straight to the top of the division because of what I bring: four bonuses in five fights, only exciting finishes, crazy things,” opined Charriere. “I think this fight is really important for me to win, especially in spectacular fashion, but that’s the way I fight.
“It’s important for me to get this win to go to the next stage.”
As for what the future holds beyond this weekend, Charriere is unsure, but understands that with his fighting style and popularity, the world is very much his oyster.
“I don’t know,” he said when asked about 2026. “We’ll see. First, Saturday night, and then after, everything is possible.”
UFC fight Night: Royval vs Kape took place live from UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada on December 13, 2025. See the final Prelim & Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC FIGHT PASS!
Tags