“His last two fights against really good guys were very close,” Quarantillo said of Swanson, who defeated Hakeem Dawodu and lost a Fight of the Night split decision to Andre Fili in his last few fights. “So not only am I expecting the best cub we’ve ever seen, I know I’ll feel the same way as we both get older. We don’t know how many fights we have left and you don’t want to end in defeat. So that’s how I see it. I give everything I have. It’s in my hometown and I know he doesn’t take me lightly. I absolutely know he probably knows he only has one or two more fights left so he’s going to give it everything he’s got and I think every fighter wants to end their career with that storybook win, that highlight reel finish finish.”

The 36-year-old Quarantillo has a ton of quality clips on his own highlight reel since joining the roster in 2019, most notably his bonus-winning interceptions of Gabriel Benitez and Alexander Hernandez. Add to that a loss to Shane Burgos in 2021, which would have been Fight of the Night on any card without the Justin Gaethje-Michael Chandler fight, and he has had a solid UFC career so far. But after losing to Youssef Zalal in March, Quarantillo is looking to end the year on the right side of the win-loss equation.

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“I don’t even want it to sound like an excuse, but the last fight we kind of rushed it because my wife was due a few weeks after my last fight,” he said. “Going into the last fight I had a lot of thoughts. I didn’t know if she would have the baby during fight week. I was in Vegas and the week before I was in the hospital with her because she was having some problems. And as you know, the fighting game is a very mental game.”