Timmy Cuamba spent fight week saying he would quiet the crowd at UFC Edmonton. Then he dismantled and submitted Louis Jourdain, a Canadian making his promotional debut in front of what should have been a friendly building.
Jourdain is the brother of UFC fighter Charles Jourdain, which made this a family night that went sideways fast. Yahoo Sports ran a piece on Charles reacting to the loss. The UFC’s Canadian account posted “Keep your head up, Louis” on X, which is about as close as a promotion gets to admitting the home team got handled.
“I knew I was going to be that dominant. Like I said earlier this week, I was going to silence the crowd,” Cuamba said after the fight, speaking with media including Cageside Press. “I kept saying it, and people thought I was playing.”
View post on X
The live updates told the story. Jillian DeCoursey scored a round 10-9 for Cuamba on X. A few minutes later she posted that he had landed a nice takedown and immediately got to a position to do damage, and not long after that she was posting that he had the win. Sherdog’s highlight package went with “dismantles, submits,” and that’s an accurate summary.
A fighter who finally found a weight class
Cuamba came into Edmonton at 2-3 in the UFC, and he got there by bouncing across three different weight classes. He finally settled at bantamweight, then lost his last fight to Bernardo Sopaj. Cageside Press called this the best performance of his career, and his explanation was simple.
“Skills pay the bills, and I knew my skill level was going to be too much,” he said.
View post on X
The win evens him at 3-3 inside the Octagon, and he is not asking to be eased along. He wants a step up.
“Honestly, anybody that gets me close to the Top 15,” Cuamba said. “I’m gonna be on my seventh fight in the UFC. I’ve had some great performances, and in this fight I showed I can beat these prospects just like that, so I guess whatever gets me closer.”
He also had kind words for Jourdain, who looked upset after the loss. “Just cause I made it look easy doesn’t mean he was an easy fight,” Cuamba said. He credited Jourdain’s boxing and called him a tough competitor more than once.
View post on X
Cuamba said he hopes to come back at T-Mobile Arena in March, which is usually where the UFC puts its numbered cards.
My take: I’ll always respect a guy who says out loud in a hostile room that he’s going to win, then goes and does it without needing a judge. A fighter who was 2-3 across three divisions and coming off a loss had every reason to play it safe in his press conference. Cuamba ran his mouth and then cashed the check. He answered the post-fight questions like a man who’d already done the math on his next opponent, too. Give him somebody sitting just outside the rankings in Las Vegas this March and let’s find out whether the bills keep getting paid.
