UFC 318 was hardly Ateba Gautier’s first rodeo.
Dustin Poirier’s retirement card has had finishes from top to bottom in New Orleans, with Lafayette’s Carli Judice kicking off UFC 318 with a blistering knee-to-the-liver TKO.
Five more finishes followed after that, arguably none more devastating than Ateba Gautier’s ruthless 70-second knockout over Robert Valentin.
Gautier is a 23-year-old middleweight prospect from Cameroon and while many have called him the ‘middleweight Francis Ngannou’ for his KO power, Gautier is surely making a name for himself with performances like these.
8-1 as a pro, the young Gautier claims he got plenty of fighting experience from university.
Ateba Gautier ‘always’ got into street fights when he was attending university in Cameroon
If he wasn’t a professional fighter, Gautier told Bloody Elbow he would be working in IT (informational technology).
Gautier had to choose between the two careers while in university in Cameroon.
“I always used to fight in the street, in my country,” Gautier said at the UFC 318 post-fight press conference.
“Even when I was in uni, I took fight in uni. For me, it was normal.
“I wanted to fight, but my mom, oh no, [she said] you can’t fight if you go to university…
“That’s why I went to uni, I did physics just to make her [think] like I’m smart, not stupid, but fighting is for stupid people.
“I’m smart, but I want to fight,” Gautier explained.
“I just enjoy the feelings, like you’re in danger. I like this feeling.”
Ateba Gautier wants to showcase his grappling after seventh-straight KO at UFC 318
That’s seven knockouts in a row for Gautier after suffering his sole loss in 2022.
Gautier made quick work of Jose Medina in his UFC debut earlier this year, knocking him out inside of a round.
Gautier got Valentin out of there even quicker, taking him out in 70 seconds.
A threat on the feet, Gautier would like to showcase his grappling—if given the chance.
“My camp, We were working on wrestling a lot,” Gautier said post-fight.
“We did a lot of a striking and a lot of wrestling, but I can not show my wrestling level, my grappling level.
“If someone wants, OK, we gonna go [to the ground].
“But if you don’t get there, what’s the point?” Gautier added.