Joel Faglier walked into UFC Edmonton on Saturday night with more than a victory on his mind.
After losing his son last August, Faglier made a promise to honor him inside the Octagon. Standing across from Javad Mahjoub, he knew the hometown favorite would bring plenty of pressure. Faglier weathered the early storm, stuck to his game plan, and walked away with an emotional victory. For Faglier, this wasn’t just another win. It was a promise kept.
“We took this fight on like two-and-a-half weeks notice. I was overseas, and when we got the call we said yes of course,” Faglier told reporters including Cageside Press at his post-fight scrum.
“We knew we had a lot of work to do when we got back.”
Faglier knew Mahjoub would come out swinging, especially with the hometown crowd behind him at UFC Edmonton. His plan was simple, survive the early storm, let Mahjoub burn through his energy, and take over late.
“Just watching his film knowing that he was a very strong judo player. We knew that he was going to start hard, throw everything with big bad intentions. As long as we weathered that storm early, I figured he’d come out really juiced from the fans, that’d tax his body. Wait him out second round, third round’s going to be mine,” he said.
Faglier’s victory at UFC Edmonton meant far more than another win inside the Octagon. After losing his son in August 2025, he stepped into the cage carrying a promise to honor his memory.
“It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever been through in my life. August 20th, 2025, we lost him at 25 weeks. He was stillborn. It was hard that he didn’t get the life that a father always expects to give to his son,” he said.
“Now I get this time, I thought I was passing on the name and in a way I did, but tonight…I told him when I laid him down I’m going to do something special for us. You didn’t get to live a great life although you had the greatest time with your mother, I’m going to do something special for us.”
Watch the entire post-fight scrum with Joel Faglier above.