Raffael Cerqueira nearly quit MMA after $70 offer to fight, but UFC call brought him back

Raffael Cerqueira considered walking away from the sport after receiving ludicrous offers to compete in his native Brazil.

Cerqueira, who had three different opponents for the Sept. 10 card of Dana White’s Contender Series before being pulled straight to the UFC 308 line-up, said in an interview with MMA Fighting he decided to hang up his gloves after being offered as little as $70 for a fight.

“There’s a promotion out there, I won’t even mention names, that the promoter offered me R$ 400 to fight in Sao Paulo, and he would only pay for the meal, no transportation and hotel,” Cerqueira said. “And I had to sign a contract with him that he would take a portion of my purse if I fought for an international promotion next. My managers were like, ‘Are you insane? We won’t fight for your promotion.’ It’s bizarre. Very bizarre.”

Cerqueira started fighting in 2019 and quickly earned the Demo Fight light heavyweight championship, defending it on three occasions before a couple of short-notice trips to heavyweight earlier this year. He has campaigned for a chance in the UFC since 2023, calling out Dana White and Mick Maynard following wins in Brazil, but was tired of waiting.

“It’s hard to life as an athlete in Brazil because we’re not valued,” Cerqueira said. “I have two kids, and I have to buy them stuff, healthcare and everything else. I fought in December and Mick told [my manager Leonardo] Pateira he wanted me, but I would have to wait a little. In my head it was like, ‘Ok, I’m in the UFC already’. I called my mom and my dad, ‘F*ck, I’m in the UFC, I’ll change our lives now.’ January came and no answer. I had to fight, so my team got me another fight.”

Cerqueira replaced a teammate in a heavyweight bout in late January, and won by first-round knockout. He called out Maynard again inside the cage, but no deal was offered.

“I reached a point I thought about quitting fighting,” Cerqueira said. “It’s hard for us financially speaking, right? ‘I can’t take it no more, I’ll quit everything and go back to school and focus on getting a job’. I started sending my resume to people who I have worked with in the past.”

Cerqueira’s coaches at Galpão da Luta insisted that he should give it another try, and if one more win didn’t earn a deal in the UFC, so be it. Cerqueira’s mother was hospitalized, and he needed money to put food on the table at home, so he took another last-minute heavyweight fight in Salvador.

“I remember warming up in the locker room, feeling completely demotivated and sad,” Cerqueira said. “I think I trained two weeks for that fight, tops. I was so tired that things would happen. I told my cousin 10 minutes before the fight, warming up, ‘If I get nothing out of this fight, I’m done. To me, this is my last fight.’”

Cerqueira recalls fighting poorly, considering he barely trained for that match, but still doing enough to put away Rodrigo Araujo in the opening round. He drove back home and told his mother he had won, now 11-0 as a professional, and she smiled back. “Good, let’s wait now,” she told her son.

“A week went by. Two, three, four weeks, and still no answer [from the UFC],” Cerqueira said. “I went back to the gym and told Mario Piazzon I’ve had enough. Mario told me, ‘Brother, remember when you told me that when life is hard at you, it’s because something good is about to happen?’ And the news literally came on the next day that I had been signed to the Contender Series. I started crying man, thanking God for everything.”

Cerqueira never had to fight on DWCS, with the matchmakers shifting him to UFC 308 instead, joining teammates Jailton Almeida and Eduarda Moura on the UFC roster. He feels the pressure of fighting for a deal would be as hard as “a job interview” with Dana White, but feels as motivated for the UFC. Aslan is 13-1 as a professional with five straight finishes going into UFC 308, but Cerqueira is confident.

“When this season of the Contender Series started,” Cerqueira said, “Dana White came out and said he’s not looking for guys over 30, and I’m like, ‘Damn, I’m 34 and the boss says that? I have to put on a show and knock this guy out or have a there-round bloody war.’ Being in the UFC doesn’t take any pressure away from me, because the card is a lot bigger now. I have to put on a great fight to show why I was signed.”