After getting a short notice invite to DWCS, the stress of a 20-day prep time didn’t even set in before Quinones tested positive for COVID-19. The worst-case scenario had come true and Quinones would spend the following Tuesday in tears as his replacement won a UFC contract.
“I was supposed to fight Shaheen Santana, and then Natan Levy of Syndicate MMA was the one who took my place on two days’ notice,” Quinones said. “He’s a pretty good fighter but I watched both of those guys and I feel like I could have starched both of those boys. I was crying in my room while I was quarantining. It was one of the most heartbreaking experiences of my life.”
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Season 4 of DWCS was winding down, so with no symptoms and no indication he wasn’t in fighting shape, Quinones had to go back to the drawing board. There was no chance of filling in in the remaining weeks of the show and it was unlikely the UFC was going to come calling.
Yet the fire inside Quinones has only grown higher and hotter than ever.
“I’m not a quitter, I know my time’s coming,” Quinones said. “I’m a high-level, entertaining, experienced fighter. Getting to where I want to be is inevitable. That Tuesday night was not my night.”
Now fighting in the Titan FC main event with lightweight gold on the line, the 25-year-old promises a well-rounded display of violence from all angles. The aggression pent up inside Quinones will only add to his already versatile style of fighting.
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You might not have learned his name that Tuesday night, but Quinones promises a treat to anybody tuning in on February 12.
“I don’t look for decisions, I don’t look to lay and pray, I look to knock people out,” Quinones explained. “I’m looking to make people uncomfortable and their experience fighting me to be hell. I want them to remember me for the rest of their life. I’m not thinking about turning people’s heads.”
What he lost with that infamous COVID test he feels strongly he’ll be able to climb back from, but it will always stick with him. While he does feel like neither man that night could have put him in panic mode, the odds are unlikely he’ll be able to prove it.
“Unfortunately [Levy] is a 145 fighter, so in the UFC he’d be fighting at 145,” Quinones explained. “He took that fight on short notice, so I don’t think he’d take it but either way, if they offered it to me I’d be down but I’m not one to spite anyone’s success. This isn’t a ‘he took it from me’ or ‘he stole it from me.’ It’s just the nature of the beast. I caught corona. Things happen the way they happen.”
Catch Landon Quinones as he fights for Titan FC gold and a chance to turn the heads of UFC matchmakers at Titan FC 67 LIVE February 12 ONLY on UFC FIGHT PASS!
