Ahead of his light heavyweight semifinal with Dovletdzhan Yagshimuradov, 2022 PFL 205lb champ Rob Wilkinson says he isn’t doing much different these days.
After all, if it’s not broke, don’t fix. Or, as he put it, “I’ve done it before and I won that title.” Which means that, when it comes to training, it all boils down to “just sort of the same sort of stuff.”
Of course, Wilkinson (19-2, 1NC), an Australian who has spent time training in Denver, knows the PFL season is a little different from your average MMA lifecycle.
“I think the biggest thing is, you’re managing that fatigue and that rest during the season, and not doing too much overtraining and getting run down and sick. So making sure I do have time off after each fight, even if I’m fighting again eight weeks later,” Wilkinson said of handling the tournament. “And just listening to my body, if I’m getting run down or sick maybe I’ll take a couple days off, you don’t need to smash yourself constantly. I’m fit from the last fight, I’m just going to build on top of that.”
“It’s definitely hard. In all the other promotions you might get called up by your manager and get a fight on the date, or you might tell then roughly when you’re looking to fight. And you can easily say yes or no, obviously you don’t want to say no too many times, but you can say no, you can make an excuse, you can be injured, you can be sick,” he added. “Whatever it is. You can just say you want to fight a month or two later. PFL, you’re fighting on this date, you’re fighting against this opponent. There’s no yes or no, if there’s a no you’re out of the tournament. You’ve just got to say yes and turn up to those fights.”
While Wilkinson has the pedigree of being a former champ, doubt was cast when he was one of roughly ten fighters in the PFL to test positive for PEDs following a stint in Las Vegas last year. That saw a win over Thiago Santos, who also failed his drug test, overturned to a No Contest. A year off due to suspension followed.
Not surprisingly, some have taken that to doubt Rob Wilkinson’s accomplishments as a whole. He’s not, however, looking to use a potential second championship to silence any naysayers – mainly because he doesn’t believe that they can be silenced.
“I think the first fight back in the PFL this year, that was a year off from fighting, and obviously coming off that suspension I was keen to get back in there and just go out there and do what I’d always done in the PFL. And that’s exactly what I did, I went forward and got the finish pretty early,” noted Wilkinson. “And then I felt like after that, I put that mistake I made behind me, and I’m just moving forward. Now two fights into this year; I’ve got two more to go.”
“Obviously that world title is the goal. As you said, winning that, whatever naysayers- there’s always going to be naysayers, people talking sh*t and whatever, that doesn’t bother me- but winning that can maybe shut them up, but most likely they’ll still find a way to be talking sh*t. But who cares? I’m doing what I love, I’m doing what makes me happy. I just want to go out there and win another world championship.”
Watch our full interview with PFL 8’s Rob Wilkinson above. The event takes place in Hollywood, Florida on August 16, 2024.
