Newark — Middleweight Ateba Gautier improved to 5-0 under the UFC banner with a win over Ozzy Diaz at UFC 328 on Saturday.
If there were any surprises in the fight, Gautier (11-1) didn’t let on, telling media outlets including Cageside Press following the second-round TKO that “I know he wanted to shoot, but I was ready for anything. It’s what happened.”
Ahead of the fight, fellow middleweight prospect Baisangur Susurkaev suggested that Gautier wasn’t famous enough yet to interest him in a match-up. Gautier gave his response backstage at the Prudential Center following the win.
“Let’s go step-by-step. Susurkaev says I’m not [famous], who knows him? Who knows him, for what? Who knows him? Nobody. I build my name myself, not behind some other peoples’ names. Myself, alone. With my team.”
As for a return, Gautier isn’t sure when exactly, other than “soon as possible,” adding that “I don’t know who they’re going to give to me, but I’m ready.”
He did call out Israel Adesanya in the cage after the win over Diaz, something of a surprise given it’s a fellow African fighter. By way of explanation, Ateba Gautier said that the callout was “because I admire him a lot. He’s a good fighter, he’s a very good quality fighter. He’s an African brother. I want to face him because I admire him.”
How big would the fight be, and how famous is Adesanya, a former two-time middleweight champ, in Africa? Gautier explained that “he’s more than famous in Africa. More than famous. Everybody knows him. If you fight in Africa and you don’t know Adesanya, you don’t know what a fight is. As a fighter, everybody knows him.”
Beyond that, Ateba didn’t have any other names on his mind— just food, including pizza.
Watch the full UFC 328 post-fight press conference with Ateba Gautier above.
