Sydney, Australia — Following a 19 second knockout of Anshul Jubli in the opening fight of UFC 312 in Sydney, lightweight Quillan Salkilld was beaming.
“It was a fairy tale ending of my UFC debut,” Salkilld (8-1) exclaimed, speaking with media outlets including Cageside Press.
The finishing blow was punishing, and was the first solid connection of a fight that opened with a few leg kicks and probing jabs. It wasn’t exactly a sure shot, either. “Just happened to land,” admitted Salkilld. “I found the range early on, jabbing to the body. Landed on his chest, and I knew from then that something was going to open up over the top. Yeah, it just landed like that.”
Asked how reality compared to what he had envisioned his debut looking like, and if he’d expected a stoppage, “I never expect quick finishes,” Salkilld replied. “I swear, any time I expect a war— I was going into this fight expecting it was going to be a hard dogfight— and I end up getting a quick finish. And my last fight on Contender Series, I was expecting a finish and it ended up being a hard dog fight. So I don’t know, I’m always contradicting myself.”
Jubli protested the stoppage; he was attacking a leg while Quillan Salkilld was celebrating. Still, he’d gone down in a heap, covering up. Not the sort of body language that is going to encourage a ref to allow a fight to continue.
Salkilld laughed when queried about whether the stoppage was fair. “Always going to be a fair stoppage. That was fair, more than fair.”
As to what how he wants the rest of 2025 to play out, the 25-year old from Perth wants to stay busy, and replenish his bank account.
“I want four fights this year. Four fights, four cheques. I want to end the year financially very comfortable. I want to be a rich man. I’m poor right now, I need some money. I’m praying that tonight I get the 50K bonus, even though it’s the first fight of the night. I’m hoping everyone else doesn’t perform as well. I want the 50K all to myself.”
Watch the full UFC 312 post-fight appearance by Quillan Salkilld above.
