Chief Executive Officer, Hammerson
Rob Wilkinson Would Love the PFL to Hold Events in Australia
If it were up to Rob Wilkinson, this year's Professional Fighters League finals would be held in Australia. Wilkinson (15-2, 2-0 PFL) ...
About Rob Wilkinson
In a July 2022 interview, Rob Wilkinson expressed a desire for the Professional Fighters League (PFL) to hold its finals in Australia, his home country. He stated that it would be "huge" and "awesome to fight for a world title and win a world title in my home country." Wilkinson also discussed his decision to train at Factory X in Denver, Colorado, citing travel concerns related to COVID-19 restrictions in Australia and a recommendation from a coach. He commented on his upcoming fight against Delan Monte, describing Monte as aggressive with good boxing but predicting he could control the fight with his reach and power. Wilkinson offered opinions on fighting strategy and other fighters. He said that finishing a fight quickly is "probably more safe, you know injury wise" compared to a longer bout. He also defended Israel Adesanya against criticism, stating that Adesanya was "winning the fight quite clearly" and that "it takes two to fight," placing the onus on the opponent to take risks.
Transcript (34 segments)
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Interviewer0:04
What is up, MMA fans? This is TwoDollar.com, and today I have the pleasure to talk with Professional Fighters League light heavyweight contestant, Mr. Rob Wilkinson. Hello, sir, how are you today?
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Rob Wilkinson0:18
I'm very good, thanks, buddy. How you doing?
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Interviewer0:20
I'm fine as well, thanks for asking. Um, are you at home right now?
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Rob Wilkinson0:25
Uh, yeah, well, the home in Denver I'm staying at.
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Interviewer0:29
Right, right, because you're Australian and currently you're training at Factory X, is that right?
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Rob Wilkinson0:35
Yeah, that's correct. Yeah, after the first fight in the PFL, I came to Denver to try and so I didn't have to travel back and forth.
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Interviewer0:46
Um, how come did you choose to switch camps?
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Rob Wilkinson0:50
Uh, one part was the travel, especially with the COVID in Australia, and I didn't want to get end up getting stuck in Australia with the restrictions. They were easing them up, but I didn't, if you know anything happened and they closed the borders again, I didn't want to get stuck there and not be able to fight because of that reason, or like if you had COVID and couldn't travel. Um, and two, I got recommended Mark as the coach, our head coach at Factory X, and um, just wanted to kind of try a new gym and get some new coaching and some new bodies to train with.
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Interviewer1:23
And how is it to train in Colorado, especially with the altitude?
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Rob Wilkinson1:29
Yeah, Colorado's awesome. Factory X and Mark are really good coaches, and there's really good bodies there, and um, everyone's lovely. Uh, the altitude took me probably about two weeks to get used to. I was struggling for a little bit. Um, obviously I just thought so I was very fit and I thought I would be okay, but it was, yeah, it was hard to get used to, but um, now I'm used to it and hopefully get the benefits when I go back down to sea level to compete.
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Interviewer1:54
Well, it appears that it was quite beneficial for you. Your path in the PFL regular season has been amazing. You earned your spot in the upcoming playoffs. You know, before we talk about that, um, who were some of the names you all have been sparring with at Factory X?
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Rob Wilkinson2:17
Um, the names: um, Dustin Jacoby, who's a light heavyweight in the UFC, I think he's ranked 15. He's been one of my main training partners, so it's really good working with such a high level guy. And then there's been uh, Josh and Cody, who are both had like one or two fights in the UFC at middleweight. Um, and but like young guys coming up and they're really good, so they've been like three main training partners, but there's quite a few other guys there that I've been working with.
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Interviewer2:43
And are you going to train with them for your upcoming fight as well, with Dela Monte?
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Rob Wilkinson2:51
Uh, yeah, yeah, so I'm staying here training with them. Um, yeah, for this lead-up, yeah.
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Interviewer2:58
Now that you secured a place in the playoffs, do you still feel the urge to finish your opponents?
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Rob Wilkinson3:07
Uh, I'm never rushing to finish my opponents. Like, I've never, even in the regular season, I know you get more points for the finishes, but I'm not like trying to rush it or make it happen out of nowhere. Um, but like, if you look at my record, and I kind of said this going to the PFL, the style of points or finishes, especially the earlier finishes, um, suits me well, as I've got, you know, out of my 15 wins, I've got 14 finishes, and 12 of them I think are in the first round. So, you know, that's just kind of my style. I think once I see an opportunity, I see someone's hurt, I uh, I'm pretty good at finishing the fight then.
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Interviewer3:44
Yeah, for sure, nobody can contest your killer instinct. I was more curious about the fact that perhaps you would adopt a more, you know, safe strategy, uh, you know, to preserve yourself for the playoffs.
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Rob Wilkinson4:02
Um, not really. I think fighting, getting a fight over quickly is probably more safe, you know, injury-wise and going into the next one. It doesn't matter if you win a fight, doesn't matter if you dominate a fight for, you know, 15 minutes. If you fight for 15 minutes, you're going to be sore after, you're gonna have, you know, you're going to be banged up, you're going to have your hand might be sore, your shins might be sore, whatever. Um, but if you can try and put them away early, obviously less damage to you.
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Interviewer4:30
You are scheduled to face Dela Monte on August the 5th. Um, how do you, you know, expect this fight to go down?
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Rob Wilkinson4:40
Um, I think he comes out, from what I've seen, quite aggressive in most of his fights. He seems like he gets pretty worked up, and he's got some good boxing. Um, he's probably got some of the better striking in the division. Um, I know he's a high level black belt in Judo and competed, uh, I'm not sure if you can beat in the Olympics for Brazil or competed for the Brazilian team. But um, yeah, I see him coming out quite aggressive early, but I think once he uh feels my power and I've got the range and got the height on him, and I'll keep him at distance, I think he'll struggle to close that gap. So I think I'll be able to keep uh keep my distance and control the fight where I want to control it, whether that's on the feet or whether I want to take him down and beat him there.
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Interviewer5:26
Did you expect to get matched up with Monty?
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Rob Wilkinson5:31
Uh, not really, I guess. Um, I did think, even in his first fight, it only, you know, he finished after the first fight, he was on the bottom of the ladder since he got finished in 30 seconds. But watching that fight, I thought his striking was still good, but he just made a mistake, got taken down, and obviously against the former champ, so um it was obviously a hard one for him to come back and make the finals. But um, yeah, so I wasn't expecting to fight him, but um, I'm happy with the matchup, and he did really well in his last fight and showed that he uh he can finish the fight and he's got all the skills, beating another former PFL champ from a few years ago, yeah.
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Interviewer6:10
The PFL is going to hold some of the playoffs overseas. Uh, you told me that, you know, in Australia the situation is still a little bit complicated, it's still difficult to, you know, promote events over there. But once, you know, the whole situation calms down, would you like to see the PFL holding an event in Australia?
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Rob Wilkinson6:32
So yeah, I'd love that. Um, there hasn't been any big promotions go to Australia for a while. You know, UFC are the only ones that really do, um, and they haven't been there for some time. So I think if PFL goes, especially with um me in the final, it would be huge over there, and it'd be awesome to fight for a world title and win a world title in my um home country. That would mean a lot to me. So I've got my fingers crossed that they go to Australia. I'm not sure if they will, but um, it would be awesome, yeah.
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Interviewer7:03
It would be, of course. Fingers crossed. You mentioned the Australia ad, the UFC. You actually fought Israel, the current UFC middleweight champion, in his promotional debut, um, in Australia. So I would like to, you know, hear from you: did you imagine that he would become UFC champion one day when you faced him, uh, back in the days?
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Rob Wilkinson7:30
I mean, obviously when I first fought him, I wasn't, you know, imagining that. There was more imagining myself become uh the world champion. Um, but after, you know, watching him fight and uh fighting him and then watching his next couple of fights, I actually went down and trained with him at City Kickboxing. Um, and you could say that was his kind of path, and he was dominating all his fights. Um, you know, I learned a lot even just from talking to him when I went down and trained with him after I fought him. Um, they were very clever with how they approached the UFC, and they waited till he was ready to go straight to the top. They um, you know, they were offered fights well before that that uh they turned down and said, you know, waiting until he's got his full game ready to go compete in the top ten, go compete for the world title in the UFC. And he showed that after, you know, winning the world title with like under two years of his first fight, yeah.
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Interviewer8:22
Yeah, it was quite an impressive path. Um, have you watched Adesanya's fight with Jared Cannonier?
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Rob Wilkinson8:28
Yeah, I watched that fight. I watched the card.
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Interviewer8:31
May I ask your opinion on the head clash in particular?
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Rob Wilkinson8:36
I mean, I don't know why so many people are giving Israel, I guess, I always give, you know, anyone who's at that high level and, you know, defending their belt so many times, they like to make criticisms of anything they do, you know, saying it's a boring fight or if you're not finishing a fight. But uh, as I've seen people say, like it takes two to fight. You know, Israel is winning the fight quite clearly, he's uh dominating each round, he's not getting hurt, um, and you know, why should he have to do anything else other than that? Uh, if his opponent is not doing anything, you know, Jared Cannonier is losing the fight, so he's the one who needs to take, you know, bigger risks to try and make something happen. Um, as always, his striking's just on another level than everyone, and his range, and he was able to control the fight from there. I think maybe even after, you know, Alex Pereira's fight being so entertaining and him being so dominant, maybe that's also why then the next fight didn't look as exciting or as dominant.
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Interviewer9:38
Yeah, I see, I understand, Rob. I finished my questions. Do you have any last messages before I let you go?
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Rob Wilkinson9:43
Nah, I'm good, thanks, buddy.
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Interviewer9:46
Thank you for giving us a little bit of your time today. Best of luck with the upcoming fight, and hopefully I will hear again from you in the future.
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Rob Wilkinson9:53
Awesome, thank you. Have a nice one. Bye-bye.