Mike Malott secured a spectacular knockout victory in the welterweight main event of a UFC Fight Night held at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Canada, on Sunday.
Fighting for the seventh straight time in his native Canada, Malott landed a devastating knee to KO Joaquin Buckley early in the second round – a perfectly timed strike that landed flush on Buckley's jaw just as he was throwing a left hand.
Upon impact, Buckley's mouthpiece came flying out of his mouth as he dropped to the canvas – after one follow-up strike from Malott, referee Marc Goddard called the fight.
"I'm on top of the world right now man; this is incredible," Malott said in the wake of a fifth straight victory. "I asked my coaches, 'That happened for real, right? I'm not about to wake up and it's fight morning and I just dreamed that? This is real?'"
Malott was asked if there was anybody he'd like to call out, but as a typically polite Canadian, he deferred.
"Come on man, you know that's not my style to call people out," he said. "I see a lot of dangerous guys in the top 10, but I keep fighting better and better and more dangerous guys, and my performances keep getting better. So I think that climb is just going to continue.
"Somebody in the top 10 [next] at the very least, maybe top five next, baby, let's go."
The rest of the main card saw Jasmine Jasudavicius outpoint Erin Blanchfield across three rounds of a women’s flyweight clash; Cristian Perez Gonzalez made quick work of Kyle Nelson in a lightweight match; Marc-Andre Barriault managed the same with Kyle Daukaus in the middleweight division; Timmy Cuamba submitted Louis Jourdain in the second round of their bantamweight battle; and the lightweight opener saw Mandel Nallo defeat Nate Landwehr via TKO.
Next weekend brings UFC 333 from the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi on the evening of Saturday 24 October, headlined by a Featherweight Championship clash between Alexander Volkanovski and Mosvar Evloev.
UFC Fight Night: Buckley v Malott – Main card results
Main event: Welterweight: Mike Malott def. Joaquin Buckley via KO, R2
Co-main: Women’s Flyweight: Jasmine Jasudavicius def. Erin Blanchfield via unanimous decision, R3
Lightweight: Cristian Perez Gonzalez def. Kyle Nelson via KO, R1
Middleweight: Marc-Andre Barriault def. Kyle Daukaus via TKO, R1
Bantamweight: Timmy Cuamba def. Louis Jourdain via submission, R2
Lightweight: Mandel Nallo def. Nate Landwehr via TKO, R2