Quillan Salkilld is riding high right now.
Salkilld (11-1 MMA, 4-0 UFC) secured the fourth win of his UFC career by submitting Jamie Mullarkey in the opening bout of the main card at UFC 325 last Saturday. The 26-year-old made his promotional debut in February of last year and has already amassed three first-round stoppage victories along with three post-fight performance bonuses.
Salkilld’s head-kick knockout of Nasrat Haqparast at UFC 321 last October went viral, marking the Perth native as one of the most exciting prospects in the UFC lightweight division. As he approaches the 12-month anniversary of his Octagon debut, he couldn’t be happier with how his tenure has unfolded so far.
“It’s really cool,” Salkilld told Ariel Helwani on Monday. “Everything is progressing a lot faster than what I anticipated this time last year. I'm just enjoying myself, having a good time. And, you know, I'm stoked to have all this momentum going my way and I'm just real keen to keep on going full steam ahead.”
Salkilld was originally scheduled to face Rongzhu on last Saturday’s card at Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena. When the Chinese fighter was replaced by Salkilld’s fellow Australian, Jamie Mullarkey (18-9 MMA, 6-7 UFC), on just three weeks’ notice, Salkilld remained unfazed.
“When I found out, I was a bit surprised that they matched us up on an Aussie card, but I (didn’t) really know Jamie at all leading up to this,” Salkilld explained. “I've met him before, but we're not like we're mates or anything. So it was easy just to say, 'Yeah, get into the fight.' Obviously, no (hard) feelings. (At) the end of the day, (it’s) just business.”
