Even at 41 years old in one of the UFC’s deepest divisions, Swanson
remains a solid featherweight. Going as far back as his
eight-second loss to Jose Aldo in
World Extreme Cagefighting back in 2009, Swanson has been a clear
tier behind the title contenders in his division but otherwise had
about as great of a career as you could ask for, stringing together
six straight wins near the beginning of his UFC run—it included
victories over Charles
Oliveira and Dustin
Poirier—before once again falling short of contention. Even
after losses to Frankie
Edgar and Max
Holloway shut his championship window for good, Swanson
rebounded with four consecutive victories to continue proving
himself as a tough veteran out; that was seven years ago. Swanson
did then have a rough stretch of four straight losses, all of which
came against ranked fighters, before settling into his latest niche
as an elder statesman, alternating wins and losses in his last six
bouts. While some of the losses have looked worse—Swanson got
finished by Giga
Chikadze and Jonathan
Martinez in manners that wouldn’t have happened a few years
prior—it still takes an extremely high level of fighter to actually
beat him. His last bout was a nip-tuck loss to Andre Fili
that most people felt he should have won; and despite Fili having a
strong career of his own, that’s still probably Swanson’s worst
loss in at least a decade. It’s a fairly amazing standard given
that Swanson has had a quick-twitch striking style dependent on his
reflexes. The thought was that when he started to age, he would
fall off hard, but that drop-off has yet to come. Amazingly,
Swanson might have outlasted the peak of a man five years younger
in Quarantillo, his opponent here.
Quarantillo took the long road to the UFC roster, going through
“The Ultimate Fighter” and the Contender Series ahead of his UFC
debut in 2019. He hit the ground running with a clearly defined
game, applying a lot of pressure that was sometimes messy but would
eventually break his opponents through sheer pace and Quarantillo’s
own durability. That approach got Quarantillo to the fringes of the
UFC’s rankings, but he’s hit a rough stretch with two losses in his
last three fights, even if both were understandable. Edson
Barboza was the level of striker who could crack Quarantillo’s
iron chin, and a blowout loss to Youssef
Zalal in March has aged much better with “The Moroccan Devil”
looking like one of the division’s best young talents. Even if
rumors of Quarantillo’s demise have been overstated, his style
doesn’t seem to be the typical type that gets past Swanson. It’s
usually quicker fighters or harder hitters who can hold their own
with the longtime vet nowadays, so Quarantillo’s pressure might
just wind up with him eating a lot of offense while Swanson refuses
to break. The pick is Swanson via decision.
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