“Some of it was from Urijah, who is a great mentor, great person and great fighter,” he said. “But I think a lot of it was the camera. We were doing interviews non-stop, so talking to the camera and listening to myself talk, I think everyone hates listening to themselves talk (Laughs), but it makes a huge difference. It’s like anything in life, the more reps you get, the better you get at it.”
That goes for fighting, as well, but Quarantillo still had a bit of a learning curve to navigate after being eliminated from the show by Saul Rogers.
“I think I had a chip on my shoulder after The Ultimate Fighter,” said the Buffalo native. “Winning one fight and getting so close to having that UFC opportunity, that lifelong dream, I almost had a sense of entitlement, like they owed me. ‘Oh, I was so close, I deserved to be there,’ and then I won my next fight. I beat Marc Stevens pretty convincingly, and then the next fight I think I got a little too ahead of myself and took a guy kind of lightly.”
That guy, future UFC fighter Michel Quinones, stopped Quarantillo at 2:51 of the first round in their April 2016 bout.
“That one really hit me hard,” he said. “I was so close right before, and then losing to Quinones, it was like, ‘Oh man, not again.’ With that loss I knew it was gonna take some big wins to get back in there and I knew I had to start taking people out and basically separating myself from these regional fighters.”
After a decision win over Matt DiMarcantonio five months after the Quinones bout, Quarantillo delivered on his words, knocking out three straight opponents before doing the same thing to Kirk on the Contender Series. He’s a UFC fighter now, and he plans on sticking around for a while.
“I made it my goal to take people out, train my ass off, outwork everyone and now I’m here and I finally get my chance,” he said. “I’m stoked, I’m not taking anyone lightly and I’m all-in and ready to get this win.”