{"id":615045,"date":"2026-04-19T19:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T19:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/615045\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T19:34:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T19:34:09","slug":"sean-shelbys-shoes-whats-next-for-mike-malott-after-ufc-winnipeg-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/615045\/","title":{"rendered":"Sean Shelby’s Shoes: What’s next for Mike Malott after UFC Winnipeg win?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mike Malott held serve as the favorite in his first main event opportunity at UFC Fight Night 273<\/a> and got his big moment on home soil against Gilbert Burns.<\/p>\n

Malott (14-2-1 MMA, 7-1 UFC) had all the pressure going into Saturday’s welterweight headliner with former title challenger Burns (22-10 MMA, 15-10 UFC) at Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He came through, engaging in a purely standup affair that ended in a third-round TKO swarm<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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It was an efficient and effective effort from “Proper,” who has now won four straight fights since his lone octagon blemish<\/a> against Neil Magny at UFC 297 in January 2024. He is showing signs of being a top 10 fighter in the division, but it’s hard to read fully into this win.<\/p>\n

With Burns taking off his gloves and announcing his retirement just moments after the fight ended, it casts at least a sliver of caution around using this as a barometer for Malott’s ceiling. That’s the case for anyone moving up a division, though, and Malott appears intent on keeping his focus and continuing to prove himself more each time.<\/p>\n

The names above Malott now are all serious tests, but the UFC might have him positioned to fight another aging contender. Former title challenger Colby Covington (17-5 MMA, 12-5 UFC) told MMA Junkie in March<\/a> that UFC executive Hunter Campbell was keeping him sidelined to face the winner of Malott vs. Burns. It’s a logical booking, and would be compelling from both a stylistic and personality perspective.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: UFC Winnipeg matchmaker: Who’s next for Mike Malott after win?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mike Malott held serve as the favorite in his first main event opportunity at UFC Fight Night 273…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":615046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,208809,19450,904,49457,638,56513,36996,22073],"class_list":{"0":"post-615045","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-winnipeg","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-canada-life-centre","11":"tag-gilbert-burns","12":"tag-manitoba","13":"tag-mike-malott","14":"tag-mma","15":"tag-neil-magny","16":"tag-ufc-fight-night","17":"tag-winnipeg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=615045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}