Las Vegas — Middleweight Ateba Gautier took less than two minutes to put away short-notice newcomer Tres’ton Vines at UFC 320 on Saturday.
The violent finish seemed like a given, since Gautier (9-1) was a massive favorite in the fight. Despite that, Gautier hasn’t had a problem finding motivation in his fight camps. Mainly because he looks inward, not outward.
“With my team, my coach, we never really had a like a training camp for specific opponents,” he told media outlets including Cageside Press following Saturday’s victory, his third straight inside the UFC octagon. Instead, the focus of his fight camp is to “make me good, make be better than the previous fights.”
“It’s not about him, it’s about me. I’m the main person there, not the opponent,” he later put it.
Asked if he’d noticed a rise in his popularity among fans, Ateba Gautier noted that he pays little attention to his profile.
“I don’t really care about— obviously I want to be the best, but I’m not focused on looking at if I’m popular or not. That’s not important for me. The most important is being good, being the best. I want to be the best, I will be the best. I don’t need distraction, I need to be focused.”
Gautier isn’t about to start calling out top 5 or top 10 opponents any time soon, however. Despite wanting to be the best, “that’s being stupid,” he observed.
“I want to go step-by-step, take my time. There’s no rush. I’m 23. So why should I go quick? It’s okay. I’m going to be the champion. I will be the champion. There’s no point to rush, I will be, for sure, definitively, 100% I will be champion. But I need more experience. Experience changes everything.”
Watch the full UFC 320 post-fight press conference with Ateba Gautier above.
