That’s everything you want to hear out of fighter, especially for one trying to make his way through the shark tank known as the UFC welterweight division. And to get to where he wants to go, Quinlan knows that Saturday night can’t be his annual appearance in the Octagon.
“Man, if it was my choice, I would’ve wanted a little more last year, but this year I have some good visions,” said Quinlan, who fought just once in 2022 and 2023. “I talked to my management group, told them my projections, and this is a start of a good year. I’m glad it’s in the first couple months, and if no injuries get sustained, I’m looking to get back in there and be active, for sure.”
If the 31-year-old starts getting regular reps, he’s shown that he has the skill, power and toughness to make some noise at 170 pounds. Are there areas to be worked on? Absolutely, but that’s the case for everyone at his level of experience. So what separates those in his peer group. It may be the ability to handle everything else that goes along with being a UFC fighter. Some can manage for a while, but not a long while; others are made for the spotlight. Quinlan is a quiet sort, but he doesn’t seem bothered by the bright lights or being constantly asked questions by strangers.
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“I do have a great mentor and coach, Michael Costa,” said Quinlan. “He’s been in there since the beginning, and he had a tough career, as well. An injury led to his retirement, and it wasn’t his choice. There are things that aren’t our choice that happen to us, but we have to make the best of it. And he kept that martial arts mentality. It didn’t change who he was; he applied that work ethic and that discipline to another venture, which is public speaking and going into the philosophy of life. I believe there’s a lot of philosophy in martial arts, and I like the quote that life mimics art and art mimics life. It’s like a reflection of each other, and I believe that we learn a lot about each other or we learn a lot about ourselves through this martial arts journey, but it doesn’t have to be martial arts.
You can learn about yourself in different ways, but martial arts allows you to test yourself and get out of your comfort zone, and it keeps you humble. And I’m glad I’m on this journey and I’m not going to let it change who I am to try to make a certain persona while I’m here. I’m going to stay true to the morals that I was brought up in and the mentors that have shaped me.”
That’s a lot of wisdom and you would assume a lot for Quinlan to think about going into a fistfight on Saturday. It is…until the Octagon door shuts. Then “Bushido” lets that “just scrap” Hawaiian take over.
“I’m just looking forward to the next bout,” he said. “I’ve been working hard. My coach has been pushing me physically and also feeding my mind, and I feel like I’ve sown the right seeds, so I’m going to reap the benefits in that cage.
“I fight with my heart, I fight with my spirit, and my coach tells me to remove the emotion,” Quinlan adds. “He says that the emotion is just a gas pedal. You can turn on your emotion or ride on the brake. If you don’t have control of it, you’ll run into a wall, you’ll go out and crash. So I’m just controlling the emotions, but turning it up when I need to.”