Schultz never had any doubt that he would pull off the victory
on Saturday.
Making his promotional debut against Schultz at
UFC Perth, Ben
Johnston (5-3) gave his all and won the first two rounds on the
scorecards. The defending Schultz had no answer on the ground, with
his submission attempts for the first 10 minutes unable to land.
However, when Round 3 struck, “Party Time” turned the tables
courtesy of a slick guillotine choke.
The submission danger forced Johnston to spit out his mouthpiece so
he could continue breathing. As referee Rich
Mitchell returned Johnston’s mouthpiece, Schultz redoubled his
effort on his guillotine. The Aussie could hold on no longer,
surrendering to give Schultz an impressive come-from-behind win.
Schultz admits that he didn’t listen to his coaches in the early
rounds, as he wanted to ease into the fight. “Party Time” was
confident that he would catch his opponent eventually, but he just
needed to find the right opening. Schultz explained his post-fight
interview:
“Taking away from this–keeping my fight clean, maybe putting a
little more effort in the first couple of rounds, listening to my
coaches. I could hear them, mentally I was really focused, I was
just physically out of focus,” the fighter expressed. “They told me
to get up and stuff, I just didn’t. I didn’t wanna work that hard.
I was like, ‘I’m gonna get the neck at some point. Four to five
times [I tried].’ I was lucky it worked. Otherwise, that would have
been 25 hours of flying home thinking about how bad I did.”
Schultz (9-3) has finished six of his nine career wins via
submission. While he came up short in his first Dana White’s Contender Series opportunity in
2024, his second chance proved to be the one to get him on the
Ultimate Fighting Championship roster. In his
organizational debut this February, Schultz suffered a first-round
knockout loss at the hands of Damian
Pinas.
Meanwhile, Johnston (5-2) has served as an integral part of
Israel
Adesanya’s camp, notably assisting the champion to his UFC 287
knockout win over Alex
Pereira in 2023. The 35-year-old hadn’t fought since 2024,
focusing on coaching instead, before accepting a short-notice
opportunity for a UFC debut at Perth on Saturday.
“Made a lot of mistakes, but that makes for
fun fights.”Wes Schultz was able to work through some adversity and secure a
third-round submission for his first UFC victory.
#UFCPerthComplete Prelim Results ➡️ pic.twitter.com/QN4ev000Do
— UFC News (@UFCNews)
May 2, 2026