{"id":932913,"date":"2026-10-18T19:30:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T19:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/932913\/"},"modified":"2026-10-18T19:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T19:30:09","slug":"mike-malott-on-fight-ending-knee-at-ufc-edmonton-i-knew-it-was-a-wrap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/932913\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike Malott on fight-ending knee at UFC Edmonton: \u2018I knew it was a wrap\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

UFC Edmonton wasn\u2019t the most successful event ever as far as Canadians winning was concerned, but main-eventer Mike Malott did turn in an impressive performance by knocking out Joaquin Buckley with a massive knee in the second round (watch the highlights here).<\/a><\/p>\n

Malott has been heralded as the potential next big thing in Canadian MMA for a long time now, and he definitely looked the part on Saturday night as he pushed through powerful attacks from Buckley to unleash his own dangerous striking. In the end, he was the one who cracked Buckley, putting his opponent out cold on the canvas.<\/p>\n

Malott discussed the win with media at the UFC Edmonton post-fight press conference.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, I saw the mouth guard fly out,\u201d he said. \u201cHe fell kinda face first. I was like, okay, I\u2019m pretty sure this is a wrap. Throw one more, you know? Can\u2019t let a guy back in by walking off or anything like that, right? So, yeah. I had to follow up with one more and put him out. But yeah, I knew it was pretty much a wrap.\u201d<\/p>\n

Buckley did his best to stir the pot all week,<\/a> but Malott said none of that affected him in the slightest.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t care what the guys do, man,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve had guys talk trash. I\u2019ve had guys wanna be my buddy. I\u2019ve had guys be indifferent. The way they act before the fight doesn\u2019t really matter. You can try and over-analyze, like, \u2018Oh, nice. I got the better of him in the stare down,\u2019 or, \u2018I did this,\u2019 or, \u2018I did that,\u2019 or whatever. We\u2019re gonna step in an octagon, and I don\u2019t care what you said before. I\u2019m gonna be the same guy that I am regardless.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLike, I\u2019m gonna be my style. I\u2019m intelligent. I\u2019m violent. I\u2019m patient. I\u2019m going to pick you apart. I\u2019m going to dissect you, and I\u2019m hopefully gonna highlight reel you.\u201d<\/p>\n

The UFC announced its return to Toronto<\/a> on January 30th for UFC 336, and there\u2019s already a lot of talk about Malott getting a top welterweight contender to fight there. Jack Della Maddalena has come up, as well as Belal Muhammad and Michael Morales.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny of these guys could get me excited,\u201d Malott said, refusing to call out a single name. \u201cYou know, I got my phone right here, so I\u2019m waiting for the call. Hopefully, it\u2019s not for a couple of weeks. I wanna just chill for a little bit. But yeah, man. I\u2019m ready to defend Canada in the Octagon. So when they come back in January, expect me to be there.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is Malott\u2019s fifth win in a row, and the Canadian fighter has just one loss in the UFC: a main card collapse<\/a> against Neil Magny at UFC 297 that caused many to jump off his bandwagon and declare him a non-factor in the division.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have a loss, people point to that as like, oh, that\u2019s who that guy is,\u201d Malott said of the lingering opinions against him. \u201cI\u2019m like, that\u2019s almost three years ago, man. I\u2019ve spent so much time sealing up the things that led to that loss.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was like the most pressure cooker, put any errors or lacking that I have as a mixed martial artist under a microscope and expose it in front of the world, unfortunately. But I\u2019ve grown as a man, that knocked me down but couldn\u2019t keep me down. And I\u2019m better now than I was then, and I\u2019m just gonna continue to grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tests won\u2019t get any easier for Malott, who will get a chance erase that previous Toronto collapse from people\u2019s minds with a better performance in the city. It\u2019ll be another pressure cooker, for sure, especially if he gets a shot at a top five welterweight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UFC Edmonton wasn\u2019t the most successful event ever as far as Canadians winning was concerned, but main-eventer Mike…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":932914,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85,1396],"class_list":["post-932913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=932913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/932914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=932913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=932913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=932913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}