Arlington, TX – After a short stint in the UFC as a middleweight Rob Wilkinson has made the move to light heavyweight and kicked off PFL 2022 season with a TKO win over Bruce Souto on Wednesday night.
“Went out there and tried to be bit more relaxed than I normally am. I was feeling him out he was moving his head well, I land that jab, and he kind of rushed forward and I got the clinch. My base is wrestling so I was happy to take him down. He kept working back up but he kind of giving me good positions to just take him back down,” Wilkinson told reporters in his post-fight scrum.
This was Wilkinson’s PFL debut and to start it off with a finish was exactly what he was looking for.
“I definitely wanted a finish. That probably sums up me as a fighter pretty well that fight. So it was a good debut,” said Wilkinson.
Following his release from the UFC Wilkinson moved up to 205 pounds and fought twice before signing with PFL.
“After the release from the UFC I was cutting a load of weight. I didn’t feel myself in my last MMA fight in the UFC at middleweight. I took some time off after the release. I had a few kickboxing fights at light heavyweight, 95 kilos, and I decided it was much more comfortable for me. I was enjoying fighting a lot more not stressing about the weight cut and killing myself like a week or two before. Main thing was performing better, and I can eat a bit more chocolate,” Wilkinson said.
As for calling someone out for his next bout Wilkinson he declined to choose an opponent.
“I haven’t really looked. Honestly someone else asked me that, if I’ve been looking at other fighters, there’s ten of them. I have one fight I don’t know who I’m going to fight next so there’s no point worrying about who’s next,” he said.
“Whoever they give me I’m happy with, yeah.”
Watch the rest of Rob Wilkinson’s post-fight scrum above. For more from PFL’s 2022 season opener check out CagesidePress.com