Timothy Quiamba and Lucas Almeida at the weigh-in for UFC Las Vegas 93. Credit: Youtube/UFC
On Saturday at UFC Vegas 93, up-and-coming Timothy Quiamba faced off against veteran Brazilian fighter Lucas Almeida in the UFC featherweight division.
Cuamba lost his UFC debut to fellow prospect Bokaji Oki, but at 25 years old, he still has room to grow. His opponent, Lucas Almeida, came into the bout coming off a pair of straight losses to Andre Fili and Pat Sabatini, but remains a dangerous threat, having won all but one of his career bouts by finish. This was Almeida’s first career decision win, but it was still an impressive fight.
Almeida started the bout by coming forward, but Cuamba landed the first big punch – a clean counter right to Lucas’s immobile jaw. But Almeida fought back with a perfect overhand right a minute later, taking Timothy down. Cuamba looked finished, but then got up and went for a takedown. He didn’t get the takedown, but clinched to recover. Lucas escaped, however, and got another knockdown, this time with a flush knockdown. Cuamba clinched, but was forced to attack again afterwards. Almeida cornered his prey, but it bit back. They batted wildly in the pocket, and it was Cuamba who loosened Almeida’s mouthguard, which set Lucas back until the end of the round.
In the second round, Cuamba started to regain momentum on his feet, but a left hook unsettled him and forced him into panic wrestling. The ensuing rounds were fairly even, but in the final minute Almeida hurt Tim again with a series of clean punches to the head and some hard hooks to the body. Cuamba escaped and survived until the bell rang.
Cuamba half-dropped his opponent for a takedown attempt at the start of the final round, but Almeida refused to accept being down and got back to his feet. Both fighters were winning on the stand in the middle of the third round, but Lucas Almeida was always on the front foot, but was taken down with a minute left. Cuamba came on the offensive from full guard, unleashing heavy ground-and-pound and ruthlessly trying to finish the fight until the bell rang, showing great heart in the process.
When the scorecards were in, Lucas Almeida was the expected winner given the damage he had inflicted in the first two rounds, with UFC commentators calling it the “best of his career.”
In his post-match speech, Almeida (through an interpreter) praised Cuamba’s toughness and explained how hard he had worked for the finish, but said he was happy with “God’s plan.”
Official result: Lucas Almeida defeats Timothy Cuamba via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
