Ateba Gautier, a Cameroon-born middleweight with the body of a perfect Mr. Olympia, is an exception. He happens to be a lover and A warrior.
When Gautier landed his first big right hand on Robert Valentine last summer at UFC 318 in New Orleans, the Swiss fighter shook his head as if to say: “Okay, I know how it goes.” Within seconds, Gautier was throwing his prey to the canvas with the same right hand, a fact that seemed to startle Valentin as he readjusted and stood up. This time the look on his face was one of confusion. Then a series of long, vicious shots struck Valentine, who fell helpless behind a forearm shield, leaving referee Herb Dean to do the only merciful thing.
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He stopped the attack with a wave of his hand. The whole process lasted 70 seconds. The bartenders on Bourbon Street took longer to pour out Sazeracs than it took to store a capable prizefighter in “The Silent Assassin.”
Where does this all come from?
For Gautier, the fist was an act of love. Love fighting. Love the warrior standing across from him and welcome him into the pocket. The love for the sport, the moment, and the ritual that allows one to detach from the senses. It’s a brotherhood because being in a cage is a shared experience that will last forever.
“To me, it’s like, let’s go,” Gauthier told Uncrown ahead of his return at UFC 324 on Saturday. “Just show love. It’s respect. You’re a warrior. If you’re a warrior, it means fighting for us, and it’s not anger. No, it’s not anger. It’s just pure love. But we show our love, but in a different way, in a different way. That’s how we show love. Nothing else.”
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It’s hard to show love in this game, which is one of the reasons why the 23-year-old Gautier has become the most feared rising star in the middleweight division. Standing 6 feet 4 inches tall and well-built, he was a true example of what it meant to be. “A unit,” they called him in a press conference during their most recent game against the Tre’ston Vines in October.
That’s just him. In three fights so far in the UFC, he has yet to go past the second round. He has over six minutes of accumulated Octagon experience and already has two bonuses under his belt. He’s the kind of knockout artist who can bring a house down with just one surge of power.
However, it was his composure inside the Octagon that left people feeling a bit cold.
He won’t rush to end anyone. He strode inside with controlled deliberation.
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Against Vines at UFC 320, Gautier seemed to be enjoying every second of the inevitable conclusion. The fight lasted less than two minutes total, but it delivered the signature ferocity that has become part of Gautier’s experience. Whenever he hit the ground, it was like the whole building was shaking.
Atbar Gauthier has quickly established himself as a feared UFC knockout artist.
(Chris Unger via Getty Images)
That power quickly became a highlight in his UFC 324 fight with Andrey Pulyaev, but it was Gautier’s relaxed demeanor that decided the fight. Perhaps that “poise” was something he earned from the many street fights he endured while growing up in Cameroon.
“Honestly, I’ve had a lot of experiences like this, but I’m not fighting because at this moment, I don’t want to be a [professional] Warrior,” he said. “I don’t want to be a warrior. I used to fight just because, first of all, I really enjoyed fighting. To me, that’s the only way to gain respect. People have to respect me, so that’s the only way. So that’s why I keep fighting. I also used to fight to show that I was strong. I wasn’t this old before. I have a small but strong body and I have to show it to people. I’m a little shorter, so I always have to show that – I’m strong. I didn’t let anyone bully me. “
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Gautier discusses it, just as ordinary people might recall glorious summers spent at the lake. He fondly recalls fighting near Doula, far from the radar of Cameroonian authorities. This is his story, what’s not to love? Before his fight with Valetin, he told Uncrowned’s Ariel Helwani in an interview that weapons were sometimes involved and specifically mentioned being stabbed with a screwdriver before bursting into laughter.
“I didn’t even feel it,” he said.
In other words, his poise is disturbing.
“I didn’t even know what MMA was when I was a kid,” he said. “I started doing Sambo when I was 18 and MMA when I was 19. So starting with Sambo, that’s why I moved from Sambo to MMA, it was my coach who pushed me into MMA. I asked him, ‘Is this a fight?’ and he said, ‘Yes. “So I said, ‘Okay, let’s fight.'”
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Remarkably, this all happened less than five years ago. Gautier left Cameroon on March 10, 2022 – a date he keeps in mind – for Manchester, England, where he joined Carl Prince, the respected coach of Manchester’s top teams Lerone Murphy and Dakota Dicheva. The transition to living and training full-time in England has brought immediate results. Gauthier has a 9-1 career record, including three knockouts in the UFC. He initially broke into the Contender Series, defeating Yura Naito late in the second round. Ever since he first appeared, people have been talking about how impressive he looks.
“I hurt you because I love you.” — Ateba Gautier
(Image source: Reuters Connect / Reuters)
This is a bit of a paradox. In England he was a dedicated prizefighter and he felt much more relaxed than when he was not a boxer (but had been fighting).
“I started looking at life differently,” he said. “When I say England is safe, that’s for me, that’s my point because where I grew up it’s not that safe. So for me, it’s safe. If you’re not looking for problems in England, you’re not going to get into trouble. But where I grew up, you didn’t even want any trouble, but you just got into it. You were already there. So just being there was already trouble.”
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Then again, discussing life in Cameroon is not a painful experience for Gautier.
“There is no more violence,” he said. “But where I grew up, no, it was just violence.”
But even so, the word that came to Gautier’s mind was “love.” When he uttered the famous line on Helwani’s show – “I hurt you because I love you” — which offers a glimpse into his unique, perhaps counterintuitive way of thinking. The scary thing is that there seems to be so much love all around.
Next up is his fight on Saturday against Plyayev, a Russian boxer who put in a strong performance against Nick Klein, who found himself at a 10-1 disadvantage. Gauthier gets attention with every punch he throws, and he knows that’s how you become a unique attraction.
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“Obviously I’m satisfied [the spotlight]because if not me, who owns it? if not Iwho has? ” He repeated the words for emphasis. “Then it must be me. It has to be me. This is what I’m looking for. This is what I train for. I’m training hard to be in this position. This is me. That’s my place. I was born to be here. No one else but me. It’s no one else’s business, no.
“Am I comfortable? No one cares if I’m comfortable. But if I don’t want to be there, if I’m not comfortable there, then stop fighting. Don’t perform well. Stop being there. But I want to be there. I want to perform well.”
Good acting perhaps understates what we’ve seen of Gautier’s work so far. His various takedowns can be better performed with explosions. However, no matter how quickly he gets the job done on Saturday in Vegas, remember this about Ateba Gautier, the 23-year-old headhunting phenom who will be taking on everyone at 185 pounds – it’s all love.
