When Diego Ferreira steps into the cage on Saturday, it’ll mark his first fight after celebrating 12 years inside the UFC. The Brazilian opened his UFC career with a 38 second win over Ultimate Fighter winner Colton Smith – winning a Performance of the Night bonus – all the way back in 2014. Six bonuses and over a decade’s more of fights, and he’s still ticking.
While his performances speak for themselves and there has never been a question if he belonged, a run to the UFC – never mind one this long – was never something he imagined.
“It was never my intention. That’s what I say sometimes, it is all God’s plan because I never thought about fighting UFC. I thought I like World Series [of Fighting] or Bellator – those were the doors I was kind of looking to go through,” Ferreira explained. “But I never thought about fighting in the UFC.”
Part of the reason he didn’t really consider fighting at the top oif the game was because he never thought MMA was going to be his occupation. While he wanted to dabble in it, he saw a different way of life for himself.
“I never thought I was going to have mixed martial arts as a job. For me, my work was going to be, ‘oh, I gotta be just another Brazilian Jiu Jitsu coach – open a gym, be comfortable in this,” he said. “But looking back, it was a great experience and I never thought about it – 12 years in the UFC.”
Now, with plenty of experience under his belt, he’s not ready to pack it up. In fact, he’s feeling better than ever going into a bout with Billy Quarantillo this weekend. And that’s a bout, he believes, could win him another bonus.
“He likes to throw down and I’m gonna be meeting him out there. So whatever is coming first, coming first. I want to put on Fight of the Night,” Ferreira said. “I know my last fight, it could have gone my way. I was there and I know he’s going to be the same way, thinking the same way. And so both, we’re going to have the same mentality. So I think we’ve got to meet in the middle and throw down – whoever is going to go down first.”
You can catch Ferreira’s fight with Billy Quarantillo as the co-main event of UFC Vegas 120. That fight card starts at 5pm EST and airs on Paramount+.
