Athletes
Mike Malott: The Journey Continues
Popular Canadian Talks Toronto Setback, Resetting This Weekend In Edmonton
On paper, everything looked like it was lining up perfectly for Mike Malott heading into his UFC 297 main card clash with Neil Magny in January.
Born and raised in the Hamilton, Ontario area, the pay-per-view fight card at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto was the closest thing to a home game the surging welterweight was going to get, and after posting stoppage wins over Mickey Gall, Yohan Lainesse, and Adam Fugitt in his first three Octagon appearances, a date with a Top 15 stalwart like Magny felt like his opportunity to begin the year with his biggest win to date and potentially push into the rankings.
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But things didn’t go according to plan, as after a good start, Malott stalled and Magny rallied, securing a third-round finish to hand the Canadian his first setback since arriving in the UFC.
“Honestly, overall, it was a pretty solid week,” began Malott, reflecting on his first start of the year as he’s set to face-off with Trevin Giles in Saturday’s main card opener. “It was a lot of energy, a lot of excitement, but it’s been like that for all my fights. Preparation for the fight went pretty well, camp went fairly well, just a couple things came up in the fight, and we had to sit down afterwards to assess why those things happened, what we need to do to make the adjustments, and it’s been nine months of adjusting.”
Malott wasn’t supposed to be on the sidelines for this long following his loss to Magny, but the fight gods had other plans there, as well.
He was scheduled to compete in July in Denver, paired off with TUF 29 finalist Gilbert Urbina, but a couple weeks before the bout, Urbina was forced to withdraw due to an undisclosed injury. As it turned out, it was probably a good thing, as the week prior, Malott had suffered a significant injury of his own.
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“Technically, it wasn’t me that pulled out of the fight; it was my opponent,” he said with a laugh, clarifying that he was stubbornly willing to push through and compete. “I was still down to fight. I got hurt pretty f***ing bad like a week before my opponent pulled out, and I was freaking out, like, ‘Dude — this is gonna suck! I’m not gonna be able to prepare for this, it’s gonna affect me in the fight, but whatever, I want to get back in there; I can do this.’
"He pulled out and the UFC was like, ‘There’s a big pay-per-view this week; we’ll get you a match next weekend,’ and that’s when my coaches and I sat down and we were like, ‘You’re not able to train for this and we still have almost a month; this might not be the time to do it.’ I talked to my manager and (he said) that we were coming to Edmonton in November, so I just kind of kept training as best as I could.
"It’s been a really long camp,” he added. “I was excited to get it going in July, but I’m even more excited to be back in Canada.”
The opportunity to compete in his home country again brings another chance to share a card with several of his teammates, as both Jasmine Jasudavicius and Serhiy Sidey will also make the walk to the Octagon this weekend.
While Denver would have brought the chance to share the card with Jasudavicius, who out-hustled newcomer Fatima Kline in the Rocky Mountains in July, this weekend’s card brings both the ranked flyweight and the promising Sidey to Alberta, meaning there is a cadre of coaches and teammates in Edmonton helping keep Malott focused and fired up for Saturday.
“It’s such a privilege to fight on cards like this with my teammates,” began the well-spoken Canadian. “We came in, got off the shuttle, came in the lobby, and Serhiy and Jas were there. All of their coaches, who are most of my coaches too, even if they’re not in my corner, I work with them day in and day out, so a bunch of my teammates, a bunch of my coaches are in the lobby waiting for us with high fives and hugs. Serhiy and I signed our posters together, and just having good energy around you is nice. It feels like a solid team endeavor together.
“We’ve been in the same practice rooms all year, but especially the last couple months,” he added. “Obviously they’re different weight classes than me, so I don’t train with them one-on-one, but they’re in the room, sharing that same energy where after practice you make eye contact and have that grin like, ‘We’re five weeks out! We’re three weeks out!’ feels cool, so it’s awesome to be here with those guys.”
But as much as he’s pumped to share the card with his fellow Southern Ontario standouts, Malott is intensely focused on the task at hand and turning the grueling efforts in the gym over the last several months into positive results this weekend.
“I’ve been dying to get back in there and compete again. A lot of it just came from wanting to get back in the room and overcome those monsters, those voices where it’s like, ’S***, man — I could have done better; I was winning that fight!’ Just getting back in there, getting on the grind and finding ways to push even harder has been very cathartic; that’s what I’ve needed.
“This is the cherry on top; I’ve already done the work,” he continued, smiling, acknowledging the cliche, but standing by it fully. “I know it’s cliche, but that’s how I really feel. I really feel like we found ways to push even harder than I’ve ever pushed.
“One of the things that you can be assured of knowing going into a fight is that you gave it everything you’ve got, but when you come up short, it’s like, ‘F***! I gave it everything I had and I came up short.’ It’s not like I’m out clubbing and I’m messing around, and ‘next time I’ll take it seriously.’ I take it real seriously, and it’s like, ‘How am I gonna train harder or get better? How am I gonna do a training camp better? How am I gonna prepare for a fight better?’
“You don’t know it in the moment,” he added. “You’re sitting in the back after the fight or you’re on the bus, and it’s like, ‘What do I do?’ but you’re not gonna figure it out in that moment. It’s gonna take reps in the gym and to see where you can push, but that’s been the exciting part of this journey the last several months.”
And now, with the misery of an extended training camp spent pushing his limits in the rearview mirror, Malott is eager to step back into the cage and face off with Giles.
The two squared off in a grappling match with Fury Pro Grappling a couple years ago, with the Canadian getting the better of things. While it doesn’t change his preparations, the high percentage finisher did admit that knowing what Giles will feel like, physically, before they get in there this weekend, does answer one question that usually lingers ahead of every fight.
"He's a solid guy, he’s a dangerous fighter; he’s got a lot of fights in the UFC, and you don’t get seven wins in the UFC because you’re a scrub,” he said of Giles, who enters on two-fight skid. “That doesn’t happen by luck; the guy is solid, and he’s got a lot of experience in the UFC, fought a lot of good guys.
“I’ve grabbed a hold of him before — we had a grappling match against one another just under two years ago; I got the better of that match, got the win, and it helps having grabbed a guy before. That’s one of the weird things, like, ‘What’s this guy gonna feel like when I get my hands on him?’ At least I’ve grabbed the guy before and he feels like a welterweight; he’s a strong guy, knows how to fight, he’s athletic.
“Obviously it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle then, and I know I can cover this guy anywhere the fight goes Saturday as long as I stay disciplined and focused.”
It feels like those last two words are the keys for Malott this weekend — discipline and focus — not so much because they have been lacking in the past, but because they are the ever-present keys to succeeding at this level.
If January felt like an opportunity to break through to the next level gone awry, this weekend is about getting back on track and taking the next step forward in what very seldom turns out to be a linear path to the top of the sport.
“This is a long journey — it’s not something that I expected to come together in a year or two,” began Malott. “I didn’t expect to get signed and become a world champion in a year or two; it’s something that takes a while. I’m getting a lot better at this, we’re feeling out the process a lot more, and feel a lot more comfortable with it now coming off that fight.
“Success isn’t always success the whole way; you have speed bumps,” he added with a smirk. “I definitely didn’t fall off a cliff; we’re still here, and I expect to have a great performance on Saturday.”
UFC Fight Night: Moreno vs Albazi took place live from Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada on November 2, 2024. See the final Prelim & Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC FIGHT PASS!
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