A UFC fighter won their debut just one month after getting signed from Contender Series.
Former two-time UFC Middleweight Champion Israel Adesanya was among those in attendance for the early morning card at UFC Perth, watching his City Kickboxing teammates go to work.
Carlos Ulberg is one of them and the light heavyweight contender headlines against Dominick Reyes, a former title challenger who many believe did enough to defeat Jon Jones back in 2020.
The featured prelim saw another one of Adesanya’s teammates get their hand raised, paying homage to ‘The Last Stylebender’ in his post-fight interview.
Cam Rowston quotes Israel Adesanya’s first UFC interview
City Kickboxing’s Cam Rowston earned his UFC contract via first-round TKO on week 2 of Dana White’s Contender Series.
A month later, Rowston made the walk for his UFC debut against veteran Andre Petroski.
Rowston TKO’d Petroski with massive ground and pound in the opening round, doing John Cena’s ‘You Can’t See Me’ hand wave to the camera.
That’s not the only reference Rowston had on him as ‘Battle Giraffe’ quoted Adesanya’s iconic post-fight interview from his debut win in 2018.
“Hey, middleweights,” Rowston said in his own post-fight interview.
“There’s a new dog in the yard,” Rowston added, pointing to Adesanya cageside.
In Adesanya’s interview, the former champ said ‘There’s a new dog in the yard and I just pissed all over this cage’.
“Seven years ago, in this arena, Perth, Western Australia was witness to one of the most legendary UFC debuts,” Rowston said of Adesanya.
“That man is also 6’4”, 185 lbs from City Kickboxing. He is often replicated, never duplicated.
“But what I’m saying is this, get on the Cam Rowston bandwagon now.
“The express train is going nonstop to the top,” Rowston added.
Israel Adesanya was hyped for Cam Rowston cageside
Adesanya has been watching UFC Perth from the early morning prelims.
The New Zealand fighter watched his teammates Navajo Sterling and Brando Peričić get their hands raised, feeling the love from Rowston, who shouted him out.
Adesanya looked ecstatic following Rowston’s win and appreciated the mention in his post-fight interview.
Adesanya is currently on a three-fight losing skid. He had initially pushed to rematch former champ and rival Sean Strickland, but to no avail, recently moving on from the man that took his middleweight title from him in Perth in 2023.