The honeymoon phase is officially over Ateba Gautier.
The Ultimate Fighting Championship’s (UFC) top middleweight prospect has quickly become one of the promotion’s most exciting young fighters, garnering plenty of attention for his aggressive style and finishing ability (like this) and the potential that many believe he has.
Gautier will try to silence some of those doubters as he takes on the biggest test of his young UFC career Roman Kopylov on UFC 332 main card this weekend (Saturday, October 3, 2026) at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The bout is a big step forward for Gautier, who has drawn criticism from some fans for the level of competition he faced early in his UFC run. After making a name for himself running through opponents, Gautier was forced to answer some questions earlier this year when he went the distance for the first time in his UFC career. Andrei Pulyaev at UFC 324.
For the first time, the undefeated prospect found some backlash on the receiving end.
But Gautier isn’t interested in chasing approval.
“I don’t count on anything — no matter what you do in life, you do good, there’s haters; you do bad, there’s haters,” Gautier told UFC.com this week. “So no matter what they say, if it’s ‘Oh, fine’ – no problem. I’m just trying to do my job. I was just doing my job, that’s all.”
The 24-year-old believes criticism is just part of getting to the next level of the sport. In his opinion, trying to win everyone is an impossible task.
“You can’t win people’s opinions, no matter what you do,” Gautier continued. “And when everybody’s on your side, that’s not good either. So you need haters. You need them.”
Instead of completely ignoring the criticism, Gautier uses it as motivation — even when the comments are harsh.
“You look at a comment and if what they’re saying is true, you just correct it,” Gautier explained. “But even if what they say is wrong or they try to insult me - that’s fine. As a man, I just try to take the good with the bad. I’ll work on it and try to come back better.”
Now, Gautier has a great opportunity to prove that he belongs among the division’s elite.
Kopylov is a significant jump in weight from Gautier’s previous UFC opponents. The Russian veteran is a former top-15 middleweight who has shared the octagon against the best fighters in the division, making him the kind of opponent that can quickly reveal where a prospect really stands.
A dominant performance would likely appease many of Gautier’s critics.
But as Gautier already realizes, the haters probably aren’t going away — and he’s fine with that.