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) will face Delan Monte in the opening round of the light heavyweight playoffs at the Hulu Theater in New York on Aug. 5. “Razor” earned a spot in the semifinals after finishing Bruce Souto and Viktor Pesta with punches in April and June, respectively.

The Tasmanian fighter left his longtime home gym, Hybrid Training Centre, to train at Factory X in Colorado in order to avoid any COVID-related travel issues. Wilkinson hopes to see the American promotion touch down in his homeland, a dream that seems more plausible than ever, considering that the PFL is already exploring some territory outside the United States and will hold part of this year’s playoffs in England.

“I'd love that,” Wilkinson said. “There hasn't been any big promotions going to Australia for a while. UFC are the only ones that really do [that], and they haven't been there for some time. So I think if PFL goes, especially with me in the final, it would be huge over there, and it would be awesome to fight for a world title and win a world title in my home country. That'd 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 it would be awesome. Yeah, it'd be perfect.”

A former Ultimate Fighting Championship contestant, Wilkinson was the one who welcomed current UFC 185-pound kingpin Israel Adesanya into the Octagon back at UFC 221 in February 2018. On that occasion, “The Last Stylebender” defeated his opponent via second-round TKO. The pair then had the chance to train together, and Wilkinson learned much from that experience.

“When I first faced him, I was more imagining myself becoming the world champion,” he said. “After watching him fight and then fighting him and then watching his next couple of fights, I actually went down and trained with him in City Kickboxing. You could see that it was his kind of path. He was dominating all his fights. You know, I learned a lot, even just from talking to him when I went down and trained with him after I fought him. They were very clever with how they approached the UFC, and they waited till he was ready to go straight to the top. They were offered fights well before that, and they turned down, waiting until he's got his full game ready to go compete in the top 10, go compete for the world title in the UFC. He showed that after, you know, winning the world title, what like under two years of his first [UFC] fight.”

(00:00) Intro
(00:45) Moving to Factory X in the U.S.
(02:10) His sparring partners
(02:58) Finishing his opponents
(03:45) Commenting on his strategy for the semifinals
(04:30) His expectation for the Monte fight
(05:27) Being surprised to face Monte
(06:10) Hoping to fight in Australia
(07:07) Facing Israel Adesanya in his UFC debut
(08:25) His thoughts on the fight between Israel Adesanya and Jared Cannonier
(09:40) Outro