Quillan Salkilld confronted the largest check of his blended martial arts profession Saturday in Australia and handed with flying colors.
The rising light-weight expertise picked up a first-round technical knockout victory over No. 12 contender Beneil Dariush within the co-main occasion of a UFC Combat Night time occasion in his house metropolis of Perth.
Salkilld capped off his 3-0 marketing campaign in 2025 with a KO of the 12 months candidate over Nasrat Haqparast and commenced 2026 with a submission of Jamie Mularkey in January at UFC 325 in Sydney.
He’s a reputation to observe at 155 kilos and can debut within the rankings subsequent week after this win. The 26-year-old misplaced his skilled debut 5 years in the past when he was an adolescent however has since gained 12 consecutive bouts total with 4 of his 5 UFC wins being first-round stoppages.
Dariush has been a perennial contender and has shared the cage with the division’s finest ever since becoming a member of the UFC in 2014, however the soon-to-be 37-year-old has now been knocked out within the opening spherical in 4 of his previous 5 fights and was coming off a 16-second KO loss to Benoit Saint Denis in November.
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Saturday’s 13-bout occasion occurred at RAC Enviornment and was headlined by former welterweight champion and Perth native Jack Della Maddalena, who was certainly one of 13 Australian-based fighters featured.
Additionally on the cardboard, previous flyweight title challengers Tim Elliott and Steve Erceg went toe-to-toe for quarter-hour with Erceg getting his hand raised because of precision hanging. Perth’s Erceg has now gained two straight, whereas Elliott had his two-fight successful streak snapped.
Elliott pushed 125-pound nice Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson for 5 rounds of their 2016 title battle however misplaced a five-round resolution. Erceg was one spherical away from defeating then-champ Alexandre Pantoja at UFC 301 nearly two years in the past to the day however misplaced a detailed resolution and has needed to work his approach again up the rankings.
Marwan Rahiki, who was born in Morocco however lives and fights out of Sydney, continued his excellent begin to his professional profession with a fast end of newcomer Ollie Schmid. Rahiki, a promising featherweight, improved to 9-0 since turning professional in 2024 after catching Schmid with a brief left hook halfway by way of the opening spherical.
The 23-year-old was coming off a March TKO win over Harry Hardwick, which was among the best fights of the 12 months. Schmid changed Rahiki’s unique opponent Jack Jenkins on roughly one week’s discover after Jenkins withdrew attributable to damage.
Brando Pericic had the house crowd roaring throughout his heavyweight slugfest with Bahrain’s Shamil Gaziev. The 2 behemoths traded heavy strikes for somewhat over six minutes earlier than Pericic managed to discover a ending mixture on the ultra-durable Gaziev.
Pericic ultimately earned a technical knockout win after chopping Gaziev down with accumulating blows like a mighty oak. Gaziev entered the occasion the No. 14 contender within the heavyweight division, that means Pericic will take his spot within the rankings subsequent week. Pericic, 31, solely debuted within the UFC in September however is already 3-0 within the group.
In much less entertaining heavyweight motion, Tai Tuivasa couldn’t snap his prolonged shedding streak and dropped a slow-paced unanimous resolution to Louie Sutherland within the opening bout of the principle card.
The Scottish-born Sutherland smothered Tuivasa on his solution to getting his first UFC victory. Tuivasa has now misplaced six consecutive fights courting again to his interim title battle with Ciryl Gane in 2022.
Aussie-based fighters went 5-2 on the preliminary card with Junior Tafa returning to the win column with a dominant first-round stoppage of Kevin Christian. Tafa had been submitted in two straight and had been completed in 4 of 5 previous to this win.
American Kody Steele quieted the group within the opening bout when he tapped Dom Mar Fan with a nifty inverted heel hook within the opening spherical of their light-weight contest.
It took Wesley Schultz a number of choke makes an attempt however he ultimately discovered the proper angle to submit the debuting Ben Johnston in one other American over Australian consequence.
Sydney’s Cameron Rowston improved to 3-0 within the UFC with a unanimous resolution win over Robert Bryczek. Rowston challenged one-time title challenger Marvin Vettori to a matchup following the win.
Australians Jacob Malkoun, Colby Thicknesse and Jonathan Micallef all escaped with tightly contested resolution wins over Gerald Meerschaert, Vince Morales and Themba Gorimbo, respectively.
