After welcoming Alex
Pereira to mixed martial arts with a rear-naked choke victory
at Jungle Fight 82 in 2015, Quemuel
Ottoni followed a totally different path than the current UFC
middleweight champion.
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While “Poatan” decided to focus on his kickboxing career and won
Glory belt in two divisions, Ottoni kept on the MMA track,
capturing the Jungle Fight welterweight title seven years after
defeating Pereira. Now, Ottoni is excited to compete at 170 pounds
for Professional Fighters League in 2023.
“I’ve waited a long time to have my chance to fight in the United
States, where everything happens, and I’ll finally have that
chance,” he told Sherdog.com.
Quemuel considers the point system of PFL the best for his
style.
“I love the point system of PFL [because it is] based on
meritocracy. The most impressive wins get more points, and that’s
really good for an offensive fighter like me,” he said. “I´m
working harder than ever to bring my best version to my debut in
February.”
Ottoni is currently training jiu-jitsu with Demian Maia
and striking at Revira gym, where Pereira used to train. He
can´t wait to show his new tools in PFL and has already
targeted a dream match in the promotion.
“I´m working hard with Demian on my ground skills and with Revira
on my striking,” he said. “And if I could choose an opponent, no
doubt it would be Rory Mcdonald. I heard he retired, but I think he
is still young and has a lot to show. I followed him
since UFC and facing him in PFL would be like a dream match to
me.”
Ottoni was surprised to see Pereira upset Israel
Adesanya to claim middleweight gold in the UFC 281 main
event.
“I gave some interviews calling Israel the favorite. Actually I
thought ‘Poatan’ would have his best chance in the first three
rounds and after that, the fight would get tougher for him, but
‘Poatan’ proved I was wrong,” Ottoni said. “He got stronger in the
fourth and decided the fight in the fifth round. That result was
great for me, since I´m still the only man to beat him in MMA.”
While recognizing Pereira’s merits, Ottoni advised him to train
hard with Glover
Teixeira to correct the holes in his game.
“He must correct his tendency to give up the back while standing up
as soon as possible, otherwise he may have problems with other guys
in the division like [Robert] Whittaker, [Paulo
Costa] and [Khamzat] Chimaev. I would say Chimaev would be the
toughest challenge for him now. But Glover is the best guy to help
him to correct that as soon as possible.”