It’s working for the 34-year-old, who took the long way to the UFC. Quarantillo built his name on the regional scene and competed on The Ultimate Fighter before a 2019 win over Kamuela Kirk on Dana White’s Contender Series earned him a place on the roster. Since then, he’s won five of seven fights with four finishes and two post-fight performance bonuses. In other words, he’s got a home in the Octagon, and the future is only looking brighter from here.
Even more notable is that Quarantillo knows all this, and that confidence was evident in his most recent bout with Alexander Hernandez. A longtime lightweight standout, Hernandez was making his featherweight debut, and in the first round, he looked good against “Billy Q,” who went back to his corner down on the scorecards and cut.
View Quarantillo’s Athlete Profile | Featherweight Rankings
“I knew he was going to be super aggressive early in the fight,” Quarantillo recalls. “Because that’s what he does; he gets a lot of finishes. So I knew going into that fight, if I can wear him down in the first round, make him wrestle with me, even if I lost the round, I knew I’d be able to take over in the later rounds.
“He was laying some good shots, but I didn’t get discouraged right away. And I actually got to a point where he got me up against the cage and I kind of busted his eye open a little bit. So his eye was bleeding and I remember thinking in my head, oh man, I’m going to take over in this fight. He’s already hurt. I’m working his body good. I felt like I was going to take over. Then I made a huge mistake. I threw an overhand. He got out of the way, took me down and almost put me in a head-arm choke. I’m like, how’d you let this happen? This isn’t good. Defend the choke. Then next thing you know, I get out of the choke. He elbows me and I start feeling all this blood on my face and I’m like, oh no, this can’t be happening right now.”
It was, but Quarantillo wasn’t rattled. Most things were going to plan, but the cut was going to be something that threw a wrench into it if the cutman couldn’t stop the flow of blood.
Round two.
