Athletes
Quillan Salkilld | Speed-Running In The Lightweight Division
Australian Rising Star Talks Co-Main Event Matchup At Home In Perth
Quillan Salkilld is not yet 14 months removed from his UFC debut in Sydney, Australia, last year, where he and Anshul Jubli were tasked with kicking off the festivities at Qudos Bank Arena, and yet the 26-year-old is already preparing for a co-main event assignment against Beneil Dariush in his hometown of Perth, Western Australia, later this year.
“Hell yeah!” he said at the mention of the fight earlier this month while in Las Vegas. “I found out —I was actually having a nap and I got a random phone call; I didn’t know who it was —and it was Hunter (Campbell) and he had an opportunity. We were stoked and waiting on confirmation, and then last night we got the all clear that it was a go ahead.
UFC PERTH: Register Your Interest
“I’m pretty stoked to be able to fight at home, co-main event spot. It’s such a big moment; I’m gonna love it.
“I was pretty confident I was gonna get on that card; I just didn’t know who,” continued Salkilld. “I wanted the co-main event spot, and obviously it would have to be a big fight to get that spot, so I wasn’t sure if I was to get a big fight and co-main spot like this one, but fortunate enough for that to come through. So yeah, keen.”
It’s not just that Salkilld has been winning that made him a clear and obvious choice for the co-main event spot in Perth this spring; it’s who he’s beaten and how he’s been doing it that has put the Dana White’s Contender Series graduate into the fast lane in the lightweight ranks.
Another Perth boy added to the card 🚨
— UFC_AUSNZ (@UFC_AUSNZ) March 13, 2026
Quillan Salkilld vs Beneil Dariush is your co-main event!#UFCPerth | SAT 02 MAY | Details at https://t.co/zdYvdmX8jR pic.twitter.com/Eo3yR6FeIR
After sparking Jubli in 19 seconds at UFC 312 — a performance that earned the Luistro Combat Academy product the UFC Honors Award for Debut of the Year last year — Salkilld navigated rough waters in a hard-fought decision win over Yanal Ashmouz at UFC 316 to move to 9-1 overall. What’s taken things up a notch is how he’s handled his last two assignments.
Last October, the Australian lightweight stepped up on short notice to face Nasrat Haqparast at UFC 321. The talented divisional mainstay entered on a five-fight winning streak, but at the literal midway point of the first round, Salkilld ended things with a thudding high kick that caught Haqparast flush and ended the fight in a flash. Three months later, he returned home and made quick work of Australian veteran Jamie Mullarkey, wrapping up a first-round submission win to kick off his sophomore campaign inside the Octagon.
Though he’s always believed in his talents, even Salkilld admitted that things have been progressing a little quicker than he’d anticipated, not that he’s complaining.
“A little bit faster than what I thought, but I’m all for it,” he said when asked about his first year on the roster and being stationed in a co-main event matchup with a Top 10 staple like Dariush. “I’ve always said I wanted to speed-run this, and speed-running is kind of what has happened. I’ve been very active and been fortunate enough to not be out of commission post-fight, so I can stay training consistently and get fights booked all year round. I’m on the right track to where I wanna be.
“I’ve been watching him since I was an amateur, Day One, so getting the opportunity to fight guys like this that have been in the UFC for a long time, big names is very exciting for me to test my mettle against these guys,” Salkilld added. “It’s a tough division, and there is no other division I’d rather be in than the lightweight division. It’s the most stacked, most competitive division, so this is exactly where I wanna be.”
Quillan Salkilld Secures Opening Round Submission | UFC 325
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Quillan Salkilld Secures Opening Round Submission | UFC 325
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In addition to getting to test himself against top-end lightweight competition, Salkilld is always buzzing to share the card with local standout and former welterweight champ Jack Della Maddalena, who faces off with dangerous Brazilian Carlos Prates in the main event.
“I’ve been wanting to share a card with Jack for a long time now,” offered the ascending lightweight, who made the first and last appearances of his amateur career on Eternal MMA events headlined by Della Maddalena and watched as his fellow Perth resident rose through the ranks and onto the UFC stage. “It’s just like the good old days on the local scene — I was always fighting on the same cards as him, and now we get to do it again at the highest level, on the biggest stage in the world, so I’m super-pumped to get to re-live that.”
View Quillan Salkilld's Athlete Profile
The forthcoming card in his hometown isn’t just a big moment for Salkilld, but a historic one for UFC events in Australia as well, as the return to Perth will mark the first time that a UFC event will take place in primetime in the host nation.
To date, the start time for each of the previous 21 UFC trips to Australia has been tailored to the North American audience, meaning events begin Sunday morning locally. Despite the early start, the Aussie fans have always turned out en masse and lived up to their reputation as a passionate, raucous bunch, packing arenas from Brisbane down to Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide over to Perth.
This time, however, the fights will take place on Saturday evening, and Salkilld believes it’s going to take things to another level.
“It’s gonna be insane,” he said with a massive smile. “We’re getting on at 6:00am on a Sunday morning to watch fights, and now it’s gonna be prime time Saturday night; it’s gonna be hectic.”
Though he’s still several weeks out from stepping into the Octagon with Dariush, the outline of the game plan for his first co-main event assignment has already been sketched out and is just a copy of the approach that has worked thus far.
“It’s gonna be exactly the same —a generalized game plan, depending on what the guy’s style is or stance; that’s the main two factors, but other than that, nothing complex,” Salkilld offered. “Go in there, fight the guy: punch him in the face really hard, try to take him down; that’s pretty much the gist of my game plan every time, and it’s been working, so I’m not gonna change it up.”
In just a touch over a year, Salkilld has gone from an unheralded Australian prospect to a rising star in one of the deepest, most competitive divisions in the sport; a 4-0 UFC fighter with three finishes, three bonuses, and a drive to entertain each and every time he steps into the Octagon.
As much as he has designs on climbing the rankings and eventually challenging for and winning UFC gold, for now, the thing he wants the most is pretty straightforward.
“Honestly, I just want people to love watching me fight,” he said. “I want people to see me on a card and think, ‘This is a banger fight, a banger card.’ I want people to see me and think ‘That’s cool.’”
Mission accomplished, Quillan.
Maddyn Johnstone-Thomas contributed to this story
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