Don’t miss the preliminary fights for UFC 270, Saturday at 8 p.m., on RDS Info and RDS Direct.

Charles Jourdain will return empty-handed from California. Ilia Topuria, the opponent he had offered to face off the cuff ten days before UFC 270, withdrew from competition on Friday, citing problems with his weight cut.

“We were there! We made the weight anyway, we showed that we were there, the UFC liked that, consoled Jourdain when he returned the call from RDS shortly after the announcement. It’s life. I don’t want to complain, I’m not someone who likes to complain… but it sucks. »

The Quebec featherweight had volunteered to face Topuria when Mosvar Evloev’s withdrawal was announced on January 12. He was about to step into the octagon for the second time in less than a month. A victory would have allowed him to stick consecutive successes to his record for the first time since entering the UFC.

Disappointed to see this opportunity slipping through his fingers, Jourdain had all the more difficulty digesting the news as he had promised himself to make his Spanish rival pay for the comments he had made before the clash. .

“He said he was going to knocker in the first round, it was going to be easy. The opponent he had to face at the start, he had criticized him because he was not going to make the weight, he said that it was not professional. After that, in an interview at The MMA Hour, he had said he would be able to do 135 pounds hands down. »

Jourdain says he met Topuria backstage over the past few days. What he has seen and heard since cast doubt on the official version reported by his team.

“His manager had said in an interview that he didn’t want the fight. The rest of us didn’t want to cause any trouble when it happened, I didn’t say anything. But when we went downstairs earlier, there were plenty of UFC members and other fighters saying he just didn’t want to fight me. On paper, it’s a good matchup for him, but he spent three months preparing for a right-handed wrestler and there he found himself in front of a left-handed puncher. »

“But I’m not here to brew anything, insists Jourdain. I’m not Conor McGregor, I’m not going to talk nonsense. But we were there. »

While he was taking the shock, Jourdain was still waiting to find out if he was going to receive the scholarship promised to him to enter the cage on Saturday evening. The UFC is used to taking care of its athletes who are there in troubled times and the showman de Beloeil should logically be compensated for his vain boldness.

“I haven’t asked for anything yet, I’m holding it dead. I am very disappointed, it affects my morale enormously. I’m going to go home, I’m going to spend time with my girlfriend, think about a solution. There is an event in May in Brazil that I would really like to be part of. I could go with my trainer [Fabio Holanda], he has schools there. But one thing at a time. »

Despite this fishtail ending, Jourdain will have learned a valuable lesson from his whirlwind trip to Anaheim. In anticipation of his fight against Topuria, he advocated a new method to meet the 145-pound limit. The experience did not appeal to her.

“It was like a sauna, but a lying sauna. It’s a new technology that a lot of fighters appreciate, but when you’re flat, the blood circulation is weird, there’s less blood in your legs. I got up after cutting only three pounds and was a little dizzy. I didn’t like that. »

Jourdain did not plan to stay in Anaheim to attend the gala whose main event will oppose heavyweights Francis Ngannou and Cyril Gane. If he manages to get back to Quebec in time, he can still watch the start of the menu with commentary by Jean-Paul Chartrand and Patrick Côté