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Longtime Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Featherweight Billy Quarantillo<\/strong> returns to action \u2014 in a new weight class \u2014 against Brazilian veteran Diego Ferreira<\/strong> in the co-main event of UFC Vegas 120 this weekend (Sat., Aug. 8, 2026) inside Meta Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada.<\/p>\n Quarantillo last competed at UFC Tampa in 2024, where UFC legend Cub Swanson<\/strong> knocked him out cold in the third round (watch highlights).<\/p>\n Then, poof! Billy Q disappeared<\/p>\n Well, we finally got the answer: a gnarly knee injury and a long-overdue move up to Lightweight.<\/p>\n \u201cI had knee surgery last year, which took a lot of time away, and then I focused on rehab \u2014 doing everything right,\u201d Quarantillo told MMAmania.com. \u201cThen I decided to move up a weight class because I\u2019m older, but I\u2019m big and stronger than ever before. So yeah, it\u2019s been a long layoff, and I\u2019m just happy to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n This is by far the longest layoff of Quarantillo\u2019s UFC career, so he is more than ready to get going again. He turns 38 years old in December, but he believes moving up to Lightweight will allow him to stay active for the rest of his career.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been building up the last couple of fights,\u201d Quarantillo said about the move to Lightweight. \u201cBefore the Youssef Zalal<\/strong> fight, I made weight, but I was puking pretty much all night before, and looking back at it, it was rough.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd in the Cub Swanson<\/strong> fight \u2014 my last fight \u2014 it was a long process to make the weight, and I just never felt normal again,\u201d Quarantillo continued. \u201cEven going over to the venue, I felt drained. After that, the decision had to be made because I couldn\u2019t keep doing this to my body.\u201d<\/p>\n The 37-year-old revealed that he was cutting from around 175 pounds in some fight camps, which is a brutal drop to Featherweight.<\/p>\n Quarantillo enters UFC Vegas 120 riding a two-fight losing streak, with both losses coming by stoppage. But now he is healthy, fighting in a new weight class and no longer killing himself to make 145 pounds.<\/p>\n That alone could make a major difference.<\/p>\n And Quarantillo has a willing dance partner in Ferreira, who is also rarely involved in boring fights.<\/p>\n So, after 19 months away, a knee surgery and a weight-class change, \u201cBilly Q\u201d finally gets to remind everyone why he has long been one of the most fun action fighters on the UFC roster.<\/p>\n