A Dream 14 Years in the Making

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During Season 3 of Dana White’s Contender Series, Billy Quarantillo was one of the chosen few to be offered a contract with the Ultimate Fighting Championship. On Dec. 7 at UFC on ESPN 7, the 30-year-old will make his promotional debut and achieve a moment 14 years in the making.

The New York native has imagined of competing in the UFC since he was 16. With a dream that took nearly half of his life to achieve, Quarantillo encountered his fair share of doubters on the journey to his win on the Contenders Series. Even he was unsure if this moment would ever happen. Making his debut inside the Capital One Arena all the more sweet.

“It almost didn’t hit me that night,” Quarantillo recalled to Sherdog. “I was just so caught up in the moment. I’m talking to Urijah Faber and Dana White with my coaches. That night we went out, I’m with a bunch of people; my friends and family, and it was just an amazing feeling. It really hit me when I was talking to my brother, and he was like, ‘you proved a lot of people wrong. How does that feel?’ There was a lot of people that counted me out so many times, and I think that was a big part of [the reward]. When he mentioned that, I was like, ‘Yea. You know, you’re right.’ There was definitely a time when I didn’t think I was going to get to this point.”