Winnemucca’s Mario Bautista will be fighting in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Oct. 5, as part of UFC 307.
It’s not too often that Winnemucca’s Mario Bautista gets to fight close to home as part of his UFC career.
The Lowry High School graduate gets the rare chance to do that, as he is part of the UFC 307 fight card set for Saturday, Oct. 5, at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.
“It will be nice to fight close to home,” Bautista said. “The closest that I fought is probably Vegas. It gives family and friends the chance to make it out here to see me fight, which is nice.”
His closest fight to his hometown just might be the toughest and biggest of his career. Bautista will face one-time world champion Jose Aldo in a bantamweight bout that may lead to bigger and better things in his UFC future.
Aldo, who is a UFC veteran, won the featherweight title in 2011. After 18 straight wins, Aldo lost that title to Conor McGregor in 2015. Aldo is 32-8 in his career and Bautista is 14-2.
“It is certainly a big fight,” Bautista said. “The biggest for me and he is a big name in the world of UFC. This is the one I have been waiting for. Me and my team will spend time watching his previous fights and go in with a gameplan. We want to see what he does and work off of that. When you talk about the UFC, Jose is that name. For him to still be around and for me to have the chance to fight a legend is pretty nice.”
A win could move Bautista up in the rankings, where he currently sits in 11th in his weight class.
“If you can break into that top five, you can start contending for the belt,” he added. “It’s definitely a big step up.”
Bautista is a 2011 graduate of Lowry High School and was a mainstay in the wrestling room under coaches Jim Billingsley, John Brooks, Brant Corak, Gus Duncan and Tim Grady.
Bautista finished fourth at the 2011 state championships in the 145-pound weight class.
Bautista moved to Arizona to train full-time and turned pro in 2017. He joined the UFC in 2019.
“When I was younger, I wanted to do MMA and join the UFC — that was the big picture,” said Bautista. “Getting into wrestling, I learned good discipline and what hard work is all about and actually meant. It was nice working with those guys. It was really good for me and taught me what I was supposed to do. They had a great message and that is why it’s a great program. Wrestling is a big part of mixed martial arts.”
That wrestling comes in handy, as Bautista has won 43% of his matches by submission and 21% by knockout. He added that he likes to get in that grappling mode and overpower opponents.
“Whatever way I can win, I will do it,” added Bautista. “That’s the way it goes, I am not going to be picky.”
It may sound cliché but Bautista noted his biggest win was his last one against Ricky Simon in January. He won that by unanimous decision.
“Getting it done against a top 15 opponent proved to me that I could get it done and belong here,” he said. “There is two different ways to get the attention of others. One is open up your mouth and get all crazy on the microphone. But that is not me. I like to be humble and let my work do the talking. My work speaks for itself and that is the route I take.”
Bautista’s 'welcome to the UFC' moment came early in his career, while he was sitting in his house getting ready to eat dinner. Bautista added that he got a call from his manager, whom he said never called that late. Bautista did not what was going on or about to happen. He was 6-0 at the time.
“He was like, 'what do you feel about fighting Cory Sandhagen in New York next Friday?'” Bautista recalled. “It was really short notice and I wasn’t properly prepared but you have to get your foot in the door somehow. I have seen people in that same situation turn it down and never get called again.”
Bautista lost that fight to Sandhagen, who is currently ranked fourth in the world. However, that got his career going.
“I took that opportunity and it didn’t go my way,” Bautista said. “It got me in there and now, here I am.”