It’s good that Ateba Gautier is starting to get comfortable with the increased attention he receives when he returns home to Cameroon, because if his second year competing inside the Octagon is anything like the first, there are going to be legions of people looking to talk to and take photos with the ascending middleweight knockout artist.
“More people recognize me in the street, people come to speak to me, they want pictures with me,” Gautier said when asked what trips home are like now that he’s a rising star in the UFC. “Now it’s normal. In the beginning, I was a bit in shock, but now it’s okay.