Navajo Stirling recalls fighter having mental breakdown before DWCS bout

NavajoStirling saw a fighter in shambles right before his Dana White's Contender Series bout.Stirling earned his Ultimate Fighting Championship contract with a knockout win onContender Series in 2024. He was sharing the locker room withQuemuelOttoni, who was set to face KodySteele. Ottoni eventually didn't make the walk to the Octagonand Stirling has now detailed what happened behind the scenes.

Navajo Stirling recalls Quemuel Ottoni's dramatic Dana White'sContender Series fight-week incident

Stirling (10-0) recently revealed that Ottoni (12-4) was aggressivetowards Steele, and even other fighters, throughout fight weekuntil the weigh-ins. However, the Brazilian's nerves got the betterof him right before stepping out for his bout and he allegedlystarted crying backstage, even ripping off his hand wraps multipletimes.Cutman Brad Tate, who was in charge of wrapping Ottoni, refused torepeat it after a point. The bout was eventually called off andSteele won his contract in a later Contender Series outing."The guy that was on Contenders [Series] was probably the worstone," Stirling told Full Send MMA. "He was fighting Kody Steele. Hechoked out AlexPereira back in the day. I was in the locker room with him… Atthe weigh-ins, he is puffing his chest, he is even looking at me,like, 'You wanna go?' I'm like, 'Bro, save it for tomorrow.' He'sstaunching Kody Steele out at the weigh-ins. And I was thinking,'This is going to be a banger.' We get to the fight night and hejust started crying. He took his gloves off three or four times.They had to re-wrap his hands. I think he had cutman Tate. Thecutman said, 'F*ck this guy, I'm not wrapping his handsanymore.'"Both Tate and Steele have confirmed Stirling's story about Ottoni,who had choked out UFC superstar Pereira in the latter'sprofessional MMA debut in 2015. Ottoni and Pereira's careers havetaken contrasting trajectories since. While Pereira went on tobecome a two-division champion, Ottoni is yet to make it out of theregional scene. He has fought only once since the Contender Seriesfiasco, suffering a first-round technical knockout loss.Meanwhile, the undefeated Stirling already has five UFC wins to hisname. The Kiwi is now scheduled to face JanBlachowicz (29-11) on less than three weeks' notice at UFC Belgrade in Serbia on Aug. 1.