Quillan Salkilld was dominant in his victory
over Mateusz Gamrot in the UFC Vegas 120 main event but that doesn’t mean he’s walking away unscathed.Despite a lopsided performance in his biggest fight to date, the Australian lightweight revealed afterwards that an awkward wrestling exchange may have actually hurt his knee. While he’s hopeful that the injury wasn’t anything serious, Salkilld admitted after the event that it definitely got his attention during the fight.
“There was a wrestling exchange
at the start where he grabbed my ankle,” Salkilld said during the UFC Vegas 120 post-show. “If it was training, I would have kind of gone with it to not hurt the knee. He had my ankle and it turned to like 90 degrees. Because I was being stubborn in that position, I didn’t want to accept any bad position. I turned into it and forced it. Usually I didn’t want to do that because I’m always scared about hurting my knee in training.
“This one, I just went into it and heard a little pop. Even when I had that rear-naked choke, I actually felt it. I was like f*ck, if I don’t get this, my knee’s going to be sore later. In round two or three, it would have been [sore]. It’s a bit sore now.”
The potential knee injury didn’t stop Salkilld from eventually snatching a takedown of his own and then working his way to a rear-naked choke submission that ended Gamrot’s night in the first round.
The win almost assuredly advances Salkilld into the top 10 rankings at lightweight, although he admits he’s not truly thinking about what comes next until he gets his knee checked by a doctor.
“I have a little bit of a twinge in the knee right now from one of the wrestling exchanges,” Salkilld said. “For the time being, my focus on seeing what the damage is, I don’t think it’s too bad, but that’s the next thing on my mind to be honest. Then we’ll be looking at closing in on that top 5.”
While he may have to wait a few days to get a full diagnosis on his knee, Salkilld promised that he expects to return to action before the end of the year and the location for his next fight might matter as much as his choice of opponents.
“I’m like Wolverine, no matter what the injury is, I’m going to recover quick,” Salkilld said. “The dream fight would be at [Madison Square Garden], New York. There’s always a card usually in November so shit, fingers crossed, I can get matched up on that.”
Salkilld knows many of the top lightweights are currently booked or just recently fought so his options might be limited for the time being. That said, Salkilld wanted to announce his arrival to the top of the division with his performance on Saturday night and there’s no doubt everybody at 155 pounds is paying attention now.
“I just showed everyone that I’m the real f*cking deal,” Salkilld said. “I deserve to be in that top, top spot in the lightweight division.”
