{"id":917226,"date":"2026-10-02T01:00:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T01:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/917226\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T01:00:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T01:00:13","slug":"ateba-gautier-embraces-ufc-haters-before-kopylov-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/917226\/","title":{"rendered":"Ateba Gautier embraces UFC haters before Kopylov fight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">The honeymoon phase is officially over for Ateba Gautier.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Middleweight top prospect has quickly become one of the promotion\u2019s most exciting young fighters, earning plenty of attention for his aggressive style, finishing ability (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-320-ankalaev-vs-pereira-rematch-start-time-full-results-espn-mma\/393817\/highlights-ateba-gautier-slays-late-replacement-treston-vines-at-ufc-320\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">like this<\/a>), and the potential many believe he possesses.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Gautier will look to silence some of those doubters when he takes the biggest test of his young UFC career against Roman Kopylov on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/latest-news\/470050\/latest-ufc-332-fight-card-start-time-date-and-location-silva-vs-cong\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">UFC 332 main card<\/a> this weekend (Sat., Oct. 3, 2026) inside Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">The matchup represents a major step up for Gautier, who has drawn criticism from some fans for the level of competition he faced early in his UFC run. After making a name for himself by running through opponents, Gautier was forced to answer some questions earlier this year when he went the distance for the first time in his UFC career against Andrey Pulyaev at UFC 324.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">For the first time, the undefeated prospect found himself on the receiving end of some backlash.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">But Gautier isn\u2019t interested in chasing approval.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cI don\u2019t hope for anything \u2014 no matter what you do in life, you do good, there is haters; you do bad, there is haters,\u201d Gautier told UFC.com this week. \u201cSo, no matter what they say, if it\u2019s \u2018Oh, good\u2019 \u2014 it\u2019s no problem. I\u2019m just trying to do my job. I just did my job, that\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">The 24-year-old believes criticism is simply part of reaching the next level of the sport. In his mind, trying to win over everyone is an impossible task.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cYou can\u2019t conquer people\u2019s opinion, no matter what you do,\u201d Gautier continued. \u201cAnd if everyone is on your side, that\u2019s not good as well. So you need haters. You need them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Rather than ignore criticism completely, Gautier says he uses it as motivation \u2014 even when the comments are harsh.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cYou look at the comment and if what they say is true, then just fix it,\u201d Gautier explained. \u201cBut even if what they say is wrong or they try and insult me \u2014 it\u2019s fine. As a man, I just try and take the good with the bad. I work on this and try to come back better.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Now, Gautier will have the perfect opportunity to prove he belongs among the division\u2019s elite.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Kopylov is a significant jump in difficulty compared to Gautier\u2019s previous UFC opponents. The Russian veteran is a former top 15-ranked middleweight <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/2025\/1\/11\/24341509\/watch-video-highlights-ufc-vegas-101-results-espn-curtis-kopylov-knockout-controversial-referee\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">who has shared the Octagon<\/a> with some of the best fighters in the division, making him the type of opponent who can quickly reveal where a prospect truly stands.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">A dominant performance would likely quiet many of Gautier\u2019s critics.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">But as Gautier already understands, the haters probably aren\u2019t going anywhere \u2014 and he\u2019s perfectly fine with that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The honeymoon phase is officially over for Ateba Gautier. The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Middleweight top prospect has&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":917227,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,33601,638,82,316155,139445,702,264568,4454],"class_list":["post-917226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-332","tag-ufc-on-paramount","tag-ufc-news","tag-ufc-mma-social-media-videos","tag-upcoming-ufc-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=917226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/917227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=917226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=917226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=917226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}