Canadian welterweight (own) Mike Malott can't wait to get back into the UFC cage on Saturday in Edmonton.
“I was looking forward to it. There’s been a lot of growth since the last one,” Malott said.
And probably some pain and regret.
Malott, riding a seven-fight unbeaten streak (6-0-1), including wins in his three previous UFC fights, was looking to take the next step at UFC 297 in Toronto in January when he faced American veteran Neil (The Haitian Sensation ) Magny. , was ranked 13th among 170-pound contenders at the time.
The 32-year-old from Burlington, Ont., held a 41-11 advantage in significant strikes in the first two rounds and looked like more of the same early in the third when he floored Magny twice. But Magny (29-12-0) stood up and took down Malott with just under two minutes left.
Then Magny, 37, raised the temperature by throwing punches from above. Magny worked his way into mount, holding position as Malott turned prone and landed more than 35 blows before referee Kevin MacDonald intervened with 15 seconds left in the fight.
Magny landed 46 significant strikes to Malott's four in the final round, according to UFC Stats.
“Listen, Neil Magny is the biggest saboteur of all time,” UFC president Dana White said after the fight. “Don't ever think you're going to come in and run over Neil Magny. And tonight he proved it again. He was destroyed for two and a half rounds and then turned around, came back and took the victory. “
Saturday Night Fight with Trevin (The Problem) Giles
On Saturday, Malott (10-2-1) looks to bounce back against American Trevin (The Downside) Giles (16-6-0) on a UFC Battle Evening card.
The main event at Rogers Place pits former flyweight champion Brandon (The Murderer Child) Tostado, ranked second among 125-pound contenders, against No. 3 (The Prince) Amir Albazi.
The co-main event will see a women's flyweight showdown between No. 3 Erin (Chilly Blooded) Blanchfield and No. 5 Rose (Thug) Namajunas, a former two-time strawweight champion. Previously announced as the main event, it is still a five-round fight.
Other Canadians on the card include middleweight Marc-Andre (Energy Bar) Barriault, bantamweights Aiemann Zahabi, Charles (Air) Jourdain and Chad (The Monster) Anheliger, and flyweights Jasmine Jasudavicius and Jamey-Lyn Horth.
The card also features Ukrainian-born bantamweight Serhiy Sidey, who fights out of Burlington.
Malott took a couple of weeks off after the Magny loss “to heal and evaluate, reevaluate what I thought I needed to improve on with what my coaches saw in the fight and (my) training partners saw in the fight.”
“(To) just use it as a learning opportunity,” he added. “Obviously, at first, it feels very close to you and almost like a reflection of who you are. But the further you get from it over time, the less connected I feel to the outcome.”
Malott's opponent was a police officer in Houston, Texas.
Instead, Malott focused on what needed to be fixed.
He acknowledges that he had not faced so much adversity in his first fights in the UFC. When asked what went wrong in the third round against Magny, Malott said simply: “I made some mistakes.”
Giles is 2-2-0 in the UFC since leaving his job as a Houston police officer in February 2022 to focus on fighting. He went 5-4-0 in the promotion while juggling his job in law enforcement, including a July 2021 loss as a middleweight to South African Dricus Du Plessis, who won the UFC 185-pound title in UFC 297.
“I took a leap of faith, I prayed and I have been blessed,” Giles said after winning a split decision over Louis (The Monster) Cosce in September 2022, his first outing as a full-time fighter.
The six-foot-tall Giles dropped to welterweight after Du Plessis' loss.
Malott sees Giles as a “solid opponent.” The two have competed before, in a wrestling match.
“I've faced him before, so to speak, and I won that match, just under two years ago,” Malott said. “I've made some major improvements since then. I have already beaten him in another discipline. But MMA is a different beast, so I definitely can't overlook it.
“He's solid, well-rounded, has good power and has fought some really good guys. But I don't see any place in this fight where I'm outmatched… He's a dangerous opponent and a beatable opponent in my eyes.” “.
Giles is coming off consecutive losses to Brazilians Gabriel Bonfim and Carlos (The Nightmare) Prates.
Malott trained for Giles at home, but spent some time in California with Team Alpha Male before a July fight with Gilbert Urbina was canceled due to injury. Malott previously worked as a hitting coach at the Sacramento gym.
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