Tuesday afternoon, I asked promising middleweight Ateba Gautier what he would have said to someone if they came to him five years ago and told him that in the not too distant future, he would be competing in the UFC, fighting on a massive pay-per-view card in his second appearance with the promotion after debuting earlier in the year in Mexico City.
Propped up against the headboard in his New Orleans hotel room just a few days prior to his preliminary card clash with Robert Valentin, the 23-year-old middleweight from Cameroon left me speechless with his response.
“I don’t know what I would tell that person,” began Gautier, shaking his head and laughing at the thought of someone bringing those possibilities to him back in 2020.