After announcing his signing with the UFC yesterday, undefeated Australian fighter Rob Wilkinson has had his debut opponent and date confirmed.
The 25-year-old, who trains at VT1 in Sydney, will face Afghanistan born Siyar “The Great” Bahadurzada in a middleweight contest at UFC Fight Night 115 scheduled for Rotterdam, Netherlands on September 2.
It will be Bahadurzada’s first bout in over 15 months and only his second since December 2013 after injuries forced him to take a hiatus from the sport. He makes the move to middleweight after splitting his four UFC fights at welterweight. The 33-year-old comes into the bout with a 22-6-1 pro record that includes 11 wins via KO/TKO.
Since making his professional debut back in 2011, Wilkinson (11-0) has won all but one fight via stoppage en-route to capturing both an Australian Fighting Championship title and a Brace tournament championship belt. He last competed back in October where he traveled to Finland and in a battle of undefeated fighters, submitted German Alexander Poppeck in the first round.
UFC Fight Night 115 will be headlined by a heavyweight bout between Alexander Volkov and Stefan Struve. It will be available in Australia on UFC Fight Pass and Fox Sports Australia.
Fight Card:
- Stefan Struve vs. Alexander Volkov
- Leon Edwards vs. Bryan Barberena
- Germaine de Randaime vs. Marion Reneau
- Siyar Bahadurzada vs. Rob Wilkinson (Australia)
- Francimar Barroso vs. Aleksandar Rakic
- Marcos Rogerio de Lima vs. Saparbek Safarov
- Rustam Khabilov vs. Des Green
- Bojan Mihajlovic vs. Abdul-Kerim Edilov
- Zabit Magomedsharipov vs. Nick Hein
- Mairbek Taisumov vs. Felipe Silva
- Darren Till vs. Bojan Velickovic
