The year was 2015, and Quemuel Ottoni was entering the Jungle Fight cage to face a man called Alex Pereira. “Poatan” was a talented kickboxer making his MMA debut, and Ottoni won via third-round submission after an exciting contest. Pereira would go on to eventually become two-division champion in GLORY and the UFC, which also changed Ottoni’s life.

Ottoni returned to Jungle Fight after traveling around his native Brazil — and a trip to Chechnya — and captured the welterweight title before signing with PFL. Injuries led to the cancellation of that deal, and he’s now fighting for a major opportunity Tuesday night, facing undefeated Kody Steele at Dana White’s Contender Series at the UFC APEX.

Those big opportunities were definitely helped by the fact he has tapped out a man that has become one of UFC’s biggest stars in 2024, but Ottoni says it has also brought negatives.

“It has obviously helped me, but I don’t know if [that win] is good or bad,” Ottoni said in an interview with MMA Fighting. “The past two years were full of criticism, a lot of bad things came with it. It was good, of course, because it has given me this chance [at DWCS], but it has brought a ton of bad weight along with it.

“Alex has a lot of fans, and there are good and bad fans. They couldn’t see a highlight or any of that, a MMA website posting about me, that they tagged and attacked me. Or someone from my family would comment on my post and they would reply with prejudice. It’s not ‘Poatan’s’ fault, but one of his fans attacked my brother with prejudice. And that has bothered me for years. I was very upset about it.”

“But I managed to get one of them,” he continued. “My mom commented on a photo I posted and this guy started to attack her. I was born on the East Zone [of Sao Paulo], brother, and we know a lot of people. I was not born a playboy, you know?. Some people there said, ‘We’ll find the guy and talk to him face to face.’ He apologized, but a lot of it upset me. These past two years were a mix of emotions.”

Ottoni is now a lightweight, distant to Pereira by 50 pounds, but the UFC hopeful doesn’t expect that online hate to ever go away. Ottoni said there’s no ill will towards Pereira — nor friendship either —, but he’s working on being “more mature” on how he deals with fan interactions.

The dream of fighting on U.S. soil will come true Tuesday night in Las Vegas, and Ottoni said he welcomed all challenges at DWCS — and same for a possible future UFC, if he convinces Dana White to award him a deal with a victory.

“I never picked easy opponents,” said Ottoni, who won his past five on the Brazilian circuit. “The first opponent they gave me on the Contender was an 8-0 guy that was beating everybody up but he pulled out, and now they gave me this [Steele]. I can’t choose. We’re going to the world’s biggest promotion and I can’t choose. I know a lot of people that picked fights in Brazil and made it to the UFC but couldn’t stay there. I know I’ll impress them with a win. If it’s a knockout or a submission… I know he’s a jiu-jitsu guy but I’ve fought grapplers before and caught them when they made mistakes. I know it’s a good fight and I fans will love watching it.”