When Billy Quarantillo makes his UFC debut, someone, somewhere, will refer to him as the new kid on the block, as if he fell out of the sky and into the Octagon with a handful of fights and dreams to make it in the big show.
And yeah, the Buffalo native has the same desire to do big things in the UFC as any fighter does, but to think he hasn’t paid more dues than most to get here would be selling him short.
“I know what it took to get me here and I do think I appreciate it more because not only have I had 28 fights, counting my amateur career and boxing matches, but I’ve also had a couple really serious injuries,” said the 30-year-old featherweight, who punched his ticket to the UFC with a third-round stoppage of Kamuela Kirk on week five of this year’s Contender Series.