San Diego, CA – UFC welterweight Josh Quinlan had to wait one more week, but he finally made his UFC debut resulting in a win over Jason Witt at UFC San Diego on Saturday night.
“It feels great, it feels fulfilling knowing that the hard work that I put in was able to get this result, but like me and my coach said before the fight, we’re not defined by trophies or results. We’re defined by work ethic, our attitudes and behaviors. I’m glad I was able to go in there with a courageous attitude,” Quinlan told Cageside Press among other media at his post-fight scrum.
“I’m going to continue to working and doing my best on a daily basis, and accept the next challenge that comes my way.”
Quinlan (6-0) landed a left hook and dropped his opponent when countering a kick from Witt. Witt was clearly out from that shot and Quinlan dove to finish him, but pulled the punch when he saw the ref come in.
“You know even when I contacted my last opponent in the contender series it would have…sometimes you have to do follow-up punches. You don’t know if he’s going to come back, you don’t know if he’s going to recover. Even though he hit the ground I didn’t know if he was out or not,” said Quinlan.
“I pounced on him. I was going to throw a couple more blows, but I saw he kind of went limp a little bit, and the ref kind of called it out as well. I’m glad I was able to have that restraint, but it might not be the case all the time you know? We’re going in there to finish our opponent. He’s going in there to finish me so I want to make sure the job is done before anything goes on.”
Quinlan was supposed to fight on last week’s UFC APEX card headlined by Thiago Santos and Jamahal Hill, but the fight was pushed to UFC San Diego due to a positive test.
“When last week’s fight fell through I have to admit I wasn’t calm about it. I wasn’t collected. I was a little bit emotional because I thought the opportunity got taken away from me once again. I was able to get my composure. Me and my coach we train to do our best and this is an opportunity to do our best,” he said.
“When it felt like the opportunity got taken away it was….you know I had to change my mindset. I had to think about it a different way. I was able to compose myself again and give it to God.”
Watch the entire post-fight media scrum with Josh Quinlan above.
