Buckley vs Malott results: Malott KOs Buckley, 12 finishes in 13

Saturday at Rogers Place was about as violent as a 13-fight card gets. Twelve fights ended inside the distance, seven by knockout or TKO and five by submission, and the only one that went to the judges was the co-main. Six underdogs won. The man at the top of the card did not need a scorecard either, and he did not need much of the second round.

Mike Malott stopped Joaquin Buckley at 2:32 of the second round to headline UFC Fight Night: Buckley vs Malott in Edmonton. Twelve of the 26 fighters on the card were Canadian, and the home side went 4-2 on the main card and 1-5 on the prelims. The crowd went home happy anyway, which tells you which half of the night it was there for.

Malott vs Buckley: 37 of 50

Photo: Btcfight / CC BY-SA 4.0

This was not a close fight that ended suddenly. It was a lopsided fight that ended on schedule. Malott landed 15 of 25 significant strikes in the first round to Buckley's 9 of 37, and all three judges (David Therien, Junichiro Kamijo, Sal D'Amato) had that round 10-9 for him. In the second he landed 22 of 25, scored the only knockdown of the fight, and Marc Goddard stepped in at 2:32. Across the 7:32 the fight lasted, Malott landed 37 of the 50 significant strikes he threw. Buckley landed 14 of 53.

That is 74 percent accuracy against a fighter whose two biggest wins, over Stephen Thompson at UFC 307 and Colby Covington in December 2024, both came from knockout power. Buckley never got the exchange he wanted. Malott kept landing first, and Buckley spent two rounds throwing 53 significant strikes to land 14.

I picked Malott in my preview, by decision. Right man, wrong method, and I will take it. The betting market spent fight week moving the other way: Malott opened at -151 and closed at -127 across 18 books, and on our pick'em 34 of the 60 fans who voted took Buckley. Our model gave Malott 56 percent and did not move with them.

Malott is now 15-2-1 and has won five straight in the UFC: Trevin Giles, Charles Radtke, Kevin Holland, Gilbert Burns and now Buckley, three of them by knockout. He went in at No. 11 in the UFC's Meta welterweight rankings. A man ranked below his opponent who wins like that should be fighting someone in the top 10 next, and on a Canadian card if the UFC is paying attention. Buckley, No. 8 going in, is 21-9 and has now lost three in a row: Kamaru Usman over five rounds in June 2025, Sean Brady at UFC 328 in May, and now this. The first two were decisions against elite wrestlers. This one was a striking fight, and he lost it badly.

Who saw it coming

Our model picked nine of the thirteen winners. The closing betting favorite won seven. The model's two edges were the fights where it disagreed with the market and was right:

Both of them missed the other four upsets: Jasmine Jasudavicius at +270, Marc-Andre Barriault at +162, Tanner Boser at +169 and Chelsea Chandler at +277. The model's worst miss was the co-main, where it gave Erin Blanchfield 80 percent, the most confident number it put on any fight Saturday. I had Blanchfield by submission in round two, so I am in no position to laugh at it.

Jasudavicius won 29-28 on all three cards. She owned the first two rounds with 4 takedowns from 6 attempts and 6:52 of control, and Blanchfield won the third, landing 42 of 85 significant strikes. Blanchfield out-landed her 62 to 43 over the fight. That fight deserves more than a bullet, and it gets one of its own on the blog.

On to the rest of the card

Photo: MM-eh / CC BY 3.0

• Marc-Andre Barriault (+162) spent most of the first round under Kyle Daukaus, who had 3:15 of control, and still landed 32 of 46 significant strikes to Daukaus' 5. He dropped him and finished it at 4:28 of the first. Performance of the Night, and it ends a two-fight skid after decisions lost to Shara Magomedov and Michal Oleksiejczuk. I wrote about his home-soil record before the fight. Add one. Daukaus has now been stopped in the first round twice in a row, by Bo Nickal in June and here.
• Mandel Nallo (-280) landed 48 of 86 significant strikes in the first round alone, then knocked Nate Landwehr down and out 47 seconds into the second. Performance of the Night. Landwehr has lost four straight, all four by knockout or TKO, and is 18-9. At some point that stops being a slump.
• Timmy Cuamba went 3 for 3 on takedowns in the first round with 3:36 of control, then submitted Louis Jourdain at 2:48 of the second in Jourdain's UFC debut. The model's biggest disagreement with the market was its best call of the night. My breakdown of how Cuamba wins described this fight. My prediction in the preview did not.
• Cristian Pérez (-342) needed 27 seconds. He dropped Kyle Nelson and stopped him in his UFC debut, two months after winning his contract on the Contender Series. He is 16-2.
• Tanner Boser (+169) did not fight like a heavyweight kickboxer. He took Jhonata Diniz down in every round, controlled him for 10:18 of the 14:26, and was up 20-17 on two cards when he finished him at 4:26 of the third. Diniz, who came over from kickboxing with a 13-5 record there, landed 14 significant strikes in the whole fight. Boser is 23-11-1.
• Joel Faglier was down 10-8 on two cards after the first round. Javad Mahjoub dropped him twice and out-landed him 46 to 19. Faglier came out for the second, landed 32 of 47, and stopped him at 2:11. Performance of the Night, and the comeback of the night. He is 7-0, Mahjoub 5-1.
• Chelsea Chandler was the biggest underdog to win at +277. She submitted Melissa Croden, No. 9 in the Meta women's bantamweight rankings, at 4:52 of the first, after Croden had controlled her for 2:14 of the round. Chandler is 8-4.
• Steven Koslow (-169) went 4 for 4 on takedowns, had 6:57 of control and submitted Chad Anheliger, the Albertan on the card, at 4:31 of the third. He is 7-1.
• SuYoung You held Cody Chovancek down for 11:49 of the 14:19 the fight lasted and finished it at 4:19 of the third. Chovancek landed one significant strike in fifteen minutes and took his first pro loss.
• Katlyn Cerminara (-253) dropped Mackenzie Stiller and stopped her at 4:46 of the first, 32 of 71 significant strikes landed. That is 12 UFC wins for her.
• Nick Galanti (-687) took Julien Leblanc down twice and submitted him at 1:26 of the first. Leblanc did not land a significant strike.

Thirteen fights, one decision, four Performance of the Night bonuses and no Fight of the Night. The prelims went the visitors' way 5-1, and Boser was the only Canadian to win on them. The main card was the other way round.

The UFC goes to Abu Dhabi next Saturday for UFC 333, with Alexander Volkanovski defending against Movsar Evloev and Petr Yan and Merab Dvalishvili running it back for the bantamweight title (card, start times and how to watch). Malott will not be on it. He has done his part, so the question is who the UFC puts in front of him next, and whether they do it before Canada gets its next card.