UFC 333: How NZ scene prepared Cam Rowston for step up in UFC competition – On The Up
Cam Rowston is moving quickly.
On Sunday (NZT), the Auckland-trained mixed martial artist enters the UFC octagon for the biggest fight of his career so far, taking on No 12-ranked middleweight Abus Magomedov in Abu Dhabi.
It’s Rowston’s first opportunity to test himself against a ranked opponent inside the UFC octagon, with the Australian so far unbeaten in three assignments.
His head coach Eugene Bareman, from Auckland’s City Kickboxing gym, says it’s an opportunity launched off the back of his work on the local scene.
“Rowston was always going to move relatively fast because, although he didn’t have the top-end experience, he had a lot of experience outside of the UFC,” Bareman said.
“What you’ve noticed about Rowston, at least from my viewpoint, is he’s moved really, really fast. He’s fought a higher level of competition in the UFC really, really quickly to get to this point now where I think it might be his fourth fight in the UFC, only his fourth fight and entering in the top 15 is insane.
“But that’s credit to obviously himself and his work ethic, but also his work that he did outside the UFC. He did a lot of development here in New Zealand outside the UFC, so he’s able to just go boom, straight away.”
Rowston, 31, kept himself busy on local shows as he built towards a UFC opportunity, competing in New Zealand promotions such as Shuriken Fight Series (MMA), Stealth Fighters League (MMA) and King in the Ring (kickboxing), and Australian shows like Eternal MMA.
He ultimately earned his UFC contract through Dana White’s Contender Series in 2025 – having fallen short in the 2024 series – and has flourished in the octagon since.
Now with an opportunity to fight his way into the top 15, Rowston was thrilled with the match-up offered to him.
“I knew that I was going to get a step up in competition for the next match-up,” he said.
“When my manager Ash [Belcastro] sent it through, I sent it to [coach] Brogan [Anderson] straight away and we were both pretty stoked with it because we’ve watched him fight for a few years now and we’ve always been like, ‘oh, if he did this, we should just do this to him’. Like, ‘oh, we can beat him this way, he makes this mistake’.
“So seeing him as a match-up isn’t the first time we’ve analysed him and what we would do to him. We’ve been watching him for years, watching his fights and just thinking how we would game-plan and just daydream about beating him. But now we get to do it for real.”
This will be the first time Rowston has fought in the UFC outside of Australia, with the promotion rolling him out as a hometown favourite in his first three bouts.
In those, Rowston claimed two wins by TKO and a unanimous decision to cement his status as one of the division’s rising stars.
Now he gets to see how he measures up against one of the division’s best – this time with the crowd on the side of his opponent.
“It’s going to be new territory for me, travelling that far and dealing with the time zones and stuff like that, but I’m comfortable with it. I’m happy to be getting out of Australia, stretching my legs and trying something new; a new challenge.”
Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.