Ateba Gautier, a Cameroon-born middleweight built like a perfect Mr. Olympia, is an exception to the rule. He happens to be a lover and a fighter.
When Gautier landed his first big right hand against Robert Valentin last summer at UFC 318 in New Orleans, the Swiss fighter shook his head as if to say, “OK, I see how it is.” Within seconds more Gautier dropped his prey to the canvas with that same right hand, a fact that seemed to startle Valentin as he regathered his bearings and got to his feet. The look on his face this time was one of bewilderment. Then a series of long, vicious shots struck home as Valentin sunk behind a helpless shield of forearms, leaving referee Herb Dean to do the only merciful thing.
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He waved off the onslaught. The whole thing lasted 70 seconds. Bartenders take longer to pour out the Sazerac on Bourbon Street than it did for “The Silent Assassin” to put away a capable prizefighter.
Where does it all come from?
For Gautier, fisticuffs are an act of love. Love of fighting. Love of the warrior standing opposite him, welcoming him into the pocket. Love of the sport, the moment, and the ritual of parting a man from his senses. It’s a love of fraternity, because to be locked in the cage is a shared experience that will last forever.
“For me, it’s like, let’s go,” Gautier told Uncrowned ahead of his return Saturday at UFC 324. “Just showing love. It’s respect. You are a warrior. And if you’re a warrior, just means fight for us, it’s not about anger. No, it’s not anger. It’s just pure love. But we express our love, but in different way, in different way. That’s how we express our love. Nothing else.”
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That fight, which struggled to reveal its loving undertones, is one of the reasons the 23-year-old Gautier has emerged as the most terrifying prospect in the middleweight ranks. He is 6-foot-4 and jacked, a true specimen to behold. “A unit,” as they were calling him on press row for his latest fight in October with Tre’ston Vines.
And he is that. So far, through three UFC bouts, he hasn’t had to endure a second round. He has a little over six minutes of cumulative Octagon experience, and he’s already taken home two bonuses. He’s the kind of knockout artist that a single surge of power is all it takes to bring the house down.
Yet it’s his poise in the Octagon that makes the blood run a little cold.
He doesn’t rush in to finish anyone. He stalks in with controlled deliberation.
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Against Vines at UFC 320, Gautier seemed to enjoy every second of the inevitable end sequence. The fight lasted less than two minutes all told, yet it conveyed the trademark ferocity that’s become part of the Gautier experience. Whenever he landed, it was as if the building shook.
Ateba Gautier has quickly established himself as a fearsome UFC knockout artist.
(Chris Unger via Getty Images)
Heading into his UFC 324 fight against Andrey Pulyaev, that power has quickly become a marquee attraction, but it’s Gautier’s relaxed demeanor that defines the action. Perhaps “poise” was something he earned through the many street fights he had growing up in Cameroon.
“Honestly, I had a lot of those, but I didn’t fight because, at this moment, it wasn’t like I want to be a [professional] fighter,” he says. “I didn’t want to be a fighter. I used to fight just because, first, I just really liked fighting. For me, it was the only way to get the respect. People have to respect me, so it was the only way. So that’s why I used to fight all the time. I used to fight to show that I was strong, too. Before, I wasn’t this big. I had a small body, but strong, but I had to show to people. I was a bit shorter, so I had always to show — I’m strong. I didn’t let anybody bully me.”
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Gautier discusses this as a regular person might recall glorious summers spent at the lake. He’s fond of the memories, fighting in the neighborhoods of Doula just out of the surveilling eye of Cameroonian authorities. It’s his story, so what’s not to love? He told Uncrowned’s Ariel Helwani in an interview before that fight with Valetin that sometimes weapons were involved, mentioning specifically being stabbed with a screwdriver before breaking out in in a fit of laughter.
“I didn’t even feel it in the moment,” he said.
In other words, the poise he has runs unnervingly deep.
“I didn’t even know what MMA was when I growing up,” he says. “I started doing sambo when I was 18 and started doing MMA when I was 19. So from sambo, that’s why I moved from sambo to MMA, it was my coach who pushed me to MMA. I asked him, ‘Is it a fight?’ He says, ‘Yes.’ So I say, ‘OK, let’s fight.'”
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Remarkably, this was all less than five years ago. Gautier left Cameroon on March 10, 2022 — a date he has committed to memory — and headed for Manchester, England, where he joined up with Carl Prince, the respected coach of Lerone Murphy and Dakota Ditcheva at Manchester Top Team. The transition to living and training full-time in England has paid immediate dividends. Gautier is 9-1 as a professional, including the three knockouts in the UFC. He originally broke in through the Contender Series, where he finished Yura Naito late in the second round. Since his first appearance, people have talked about what an imposing figure he cuts.
“I hurt you because I love you.” — Ateba Gautier
(IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect / Reuters)
And it’s been a little paradoxical. In England, where he is a dedicated professional fighter, he feels far more at ease than when he wasn’t a fighter (yet who fought all the time).
“I start to see life in different way,” he says. “When I say England is safe, that’s for me, that’s my opinion, because where I grew up wasn’t that safe. So for me, it’s safe. If you are not looking for a problem in England, you won’t get in trouble. But where I grew up, you don’t even want any trouble, but you’re just into it. You’re just already there. So just being there is already like you’re in trouble.”
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Again, discussing life in Cameroon is not a distressing thing for Gautier.
“There’s no violence anymore,” he says. “But where I grew up, no, it was just violence.”
Yet even then, the word that comes to Gautier’s mind is “love.” When he said his now-famous line during his appearance on Helwani’s show — “I hurt you because I love you” — it gave a glimpse into his unique, perhaps counterintuitive way of thinking. The scary part is there appears to be plenty of love to go around.
Next in line is his Saturday matinee against Pulyaev, a Russian fighter coming off a nice performance against Nick Klein who nevertheless finds himself in the range of a 10-to-1 underdog. The spotlight grows with every punch Gautier throws, and he knows that’s how you become singular attraction.
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“Obviously I’m comfortable with [the spotlight], because if not me, who has it? If it’s not me, who has it?” he says, repeating the words for emphasis. “Then it has to be me. It has to be me. That’s what I’m looking for. That’s what I’m training for. I’m training hard to be in this position. That’s me. That’s my place. I was born to be here. Nobody else, just me. It’s not about someone else, no.
“Am I comfortable? Nobody cares if I’m comfortable or not. But if I don’t want to be there, if I’m not comfortable there, so just stop fighting. Don’t give a good performance. Stop being there. But I want to be there. I want the good performance.”
Good performances perhaps understate the body of work we’ve seen so far from Gautier. Knockouts of his variety can be better filed under explosive. Yet no matter how quickly he finishes the job come Saturday in Vegas, remember this about Ateba Gautier, the 23-year-old headhunting phenom who is coming for everyone at 185 pounds — it’s all love.
