Athletes
Cam Rowston Comes Full Circle
Sydneysider Discusses Debut Win And Fighting At Home This Weekend
After Cam Rowston earned his contract last season on Dana White’s Contender Series, the Australian middleweight and City Kickboxing representative lobbied for an opportunity to compete on the UFC Fight Night event schedule for Perth just a few weeks later.
When his request was granted, the lanky new arrival explained that getting to fight in his home country was important because the friends and family who traveled to see him compete in in the middle of nowhere only needed to endure a 3-hour flight to see him fight on the biggest stage in the sport at RAC Arena. Though he anticipated a war, Rowston instead had a quick night at the office, stopping veteran Andre Petroski midway through the opening round to register his first UFC win.
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“It was just a great feeling to be honest,” Rowston said. “It’s (a) top-5 (moment) for sure. I’ll throw the Contender Series win in there as well. Graduating high school was pretty good as well; I was happy to get that one out of the way.”
A part of what elevates that performance into his personal all-time top-5 is how rolling through Petroski in less than three minutes provided confirmation of the efforts that are being put in and the abilities he carries with him into the Octagon.
It’s one thing to believe you’re dangerous enough to turn in those types of performances on at the sport’s highest level, but going out there and proving it to yourself is something else entirely.
“I had so much momentum coming off Contenders, a nice quick, short camp getting ready for Perth, and I just felt like I was primed, ready to go for whatever was gonna happen — whether it was a quick finish of a 15-minute slugfest,” explained Rowston. “Being able to get that quick finish even though I prepared for the 15 minutes was a huge boost to my confidence.
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“It was also a big boost to the process we have at the gym here, like, ‘OK — there’s a reason we do the training this way, and the pads, the breakdowns, the conditioning,’” he added. “It reinforced my belief in the process we have at the gym, and I’ve just got to buy into it more and more, commit myself as much as I can to the training camp.”
Hopefully that all-time top-5 is written in pencil — and definitely not laminated — because Rowston could very well make some revisions soon as the 32-year-old is slated to face Cody Brundage at Qudos Bank Arena in his hometown of Sydney at UFC 325.
Cam Rowston Post-Fight Interview | UFC Perth
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Cam Rowston Post-Fight Interview | UFC Perth
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“This is the full circle moment, I think,” he said of competing at home against Cody Brundage this weekend. “My very first gym was in Sydney. My very first coach, Scott Ireland from Training Grounds, is gonna come and do the weigh-ins with me. He’s gonna walk out at the weigh-ins with me. He’s been all over the world, all over Australia with me for all the fights.
“All my mates only have to drive 20 minutes to get to the arena to come and see me. That’s probably closer than some of the other spots they had to go when I was fighting regionally,” he added with a laugh. “It’s unbelievable, and I’m very happy that it’s only my second fight, and I’m already fighting half-an-hour from where I grew up.”
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Typically, the fact that Rowston, an Australian, is opening his career with back-to-back appearances in his homeland would be the kind of thing that gets chalked up to good timing and the way the UFC schedule has lined up, but there is more to it than that.
The promotion went out of its way to hustle the Contender Series winner onto the Perth card just five weeks after he punched his ticket to the roster, and while the timing of this weekend’s card is more fortuitous than his debut, the fact that Rowston is once again stepping in with a battle-tested divisional mainstay should not be overlooked.
“It tells me there is no room for error; that’s what the UFC is saying,” he said. “They’re saying, ‘Sink or swim, and if you can swim, you’re gonna swim straight to the top, but if you sink, you’re gonna sink to the bottom very fast.’”
Following his emphatic debut win over Petroski, Rowston cut a professional wrestling style promo that paid homage to his teammate and training partner, two-time middleweight champion Israel Adesanya, who was loving every minute of it in the front row. It was a fun and playful moment, but also one that carried some validity as well.
While he doesn’t have the resume and reputation that “The Last Stylebender” brought with him into the UFC when he kicked in the door in 2018, the middleweight division is once again hovering on the edge of an inflection point with champ Khamzat Chimaev talking about a move up and early retirement, younger athletes making a push to claim prime real estate in the rankings, and opportunities for promising talents like Rowston to string together a couple wins and gain entry into the express lane towards contention.
First comes Saturday’s clash with Brundage.
“I’ve watched a lot of his fights,” began Rowston. “I watch a lot of middleweight fights, and he’s one of those guys I’ve been watching for a while. I was very happy with that matchup, giving me a name in my second fight.
“He comes from a very good gym as well, coached by Marc Montoya. They’ve got some great UFC fighters and great fighters in general, so I know he’s coming from a good stable with a very smart coach. It’s gonna be a real chess match, I believe.”
Should everything go as planned and he emerge with another victory in hand, Rowston would love to get another couple appearances in before the year is out, but the hometown boy isn’t one to count his chickens before the hatch.
“I never like to think about another name when I have a name,” he said with a smile when asked about his goals for the. “History has told us in MMA and the UFC, boxing, combat sports that that is a curse. I’m a big believe in fight curses, so no names, but I would like to stay active.
“Seeing as I’m on the second card of the year, I have a head start on most of the rest of the division. I would love to be active and get three fights; that would be perfect. I’ll get the job done against Cody, but then I’ll worry about the other two.”
UFC 325: Volkanovski vs Lopes 2 took place live from Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia on January 31, 2026. See the final Prelim & Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC FIGHT PASS!
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