Athletes
MIKE MALOTT NOT PRESSING FAST FORWARD
Canadian Welterweight Discusses First Main Event Opportunity
Mike Malott and his younger brother Jeff have been running parallel professional paths for several years. From getting the first meaningful call in pursuit of their individual dreams in the same week to the No. 39 representing the seconds it took Mike to win on Dana White’s Contender Series and the number Jeff wears as a gritty winger for the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings, the synergy between the two is both uncanny and frequent.
And it continues next month when the elder of the Waterdown, Ontario tandem makes his first UFC main event appearance opposite Gilbert Burns when the Octagon returns to Winnipeg on April 18 at Canada Life Centre.
“Yeah — right! True! Right?” Malott said, surprised and excited when I reminded him that his first headlining assignment will come in the same barn where his younger brother played his first season of professional hockey with the Manitoba Moose. “I didn’t even think about that!
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“I obviously made the connection of the Moose and the (Winnipeg) Jets playing there, but I didn’t think of it in that way,” he said, chuckling. “We can’t really seem to avoid having shared moments.”
Mike Malott Ties Up An Arm Triangle Submission In The First Round | UFC Fight Night: Muniz vs Allen
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Mike Malott Ties Up An Arm Triangle Submission In The First Round | UFC Fight Night: Muniz vs Allen
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The shared moments are only part of what has been a magical journey for the 34-year-old Ontario native, who set his mind towards competing at the highest levels of mixed martial arts when he was a high school student at Hillfield Strathallan College in Hamilton. Over the last few years, Malott has fought exclusively in Canada — not by force, but with good reason, as the ascending welterweight has become the most recognized and beloved competitor from the nation on the UFC roster.
It’s a role he’s always carried with pride, and now to be getting his first main event assignment on Canadian soil just feels like the next step in the progression, and the next piece of the childhood dream come true.
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“It’s pretty cool, man,” Malott said of headlining in Canada against Burns, a Top 15 mainstay who fought for the welterweight title in 2021. “I just keep thinking what 13-, 14-, 15-year-old me would be thinking to find out I’m main eventing a UFC card in Canada; it’s pretty sweet, man.
“It’s funny; it feels kind of manifested too,” continued the Canadian, who heads into next month’s fight riding a three-fight winning streak and brandishing a 6-1 record inside the Octagon. “I just finished my home gym — we gym’ed out the garage at the house — and I’m gonna put up some of my fight posters.
“I was talking to some of the guys at the gym, showing them pictures, and I was like, ‘Yeah, we’re putting the fight posters up; none of them have my face on them yet, but hopefully pretty sure.’ And then maybe two, three hours later, I found out I was the main event.
“It’s crazy. It feels manifested.”
While it’s impossible to say with any certainty whether something cosmic aligned in order for Malott to get the main event call — and therefore his face on a poster — just a couple hours earlier, one thing that is definite is that the Dana White’s Contender Series grad has earned this opportunity and made the requisite adjustments needed to get here along the way.
After opening his UFC career with three straight stoppage wins, including a breakthrough effort during UFC 289 fight week in Vancouver, where he stopped Adam Fugitt, Malott was paired off with perennial welterweight litmus test Neil Magny on the main card of UFC 297 in Toronto at the start of 2024. Fighting as close to home as he ever will in his career, it was positioned as a grand arrival moment for the emerging Canadian, and while he started well, Malott faltered late, opening the door for Magny to rally and secure a third-round finish.
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When he returned in November against Trevin Giles, Malott focused on getting things moving in the right direction again, recognizing that he needed more time in the cage more than anything else.
“It was almost a humbling experience, a little bit,” he said of the bout with Giles, which he won by unanimous decision. “Coming back, looking for that first win again, and knowing ‘You might just need to do what you have to do in order to get the win.’
Mike Malott Gets KO In His UFC Debut | UFC 273: Volkanovski vs The Korean Zombie
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Mike Malott Gets KO In His UFC Debut | UFC 273: Volkanovski vs The Korean Zombie
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“I love fighting because when you do it well, you get to feel like The Man, and I won, but I didn’t get that big, celebratory feeling that I was used to and, in a way, addicted to. Instead, it was like, ‘Look, man — life goes on; you get a win, you move in the right direction,’ and then was kind of rewarded with that next fight, where I went for it a little more, found the opening, and got the knockout over (Charles) Radtke, who is super-tough, and that felt like that old feeling again.
“It was good for me, the Giles fight and fighting in Edmonton,” continued Malott, who briefly broke into the Top 15 last October and will be looking to claim a more permanent place in the rankings with a win over Burns. “In the moment, it wasn’t as rewarding, but I knew it was what I needed. I kind of said it that night — ‘I know this is what I need moving forward; I needed to go 15 minutes tonight, I needed to feel more comfortable in there and feel the ground under my feet and rack up some more Octagon time.’
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“Before UFC Toronto, with four fights, including Contender Series, all four of those wins had totalled to less than one 15-minute win by decision,” he added. “As much as I had been in there four times, I had really only had a few minutes’ worth of experience, so getting some more time with that canvas under my feet was really helpful.”
He cleared the next hurdle on the road to headlining last fall in Vancouver, earning a unanimous decision win over Kevin Holland that confirmed for him that he’s capable of not only sharing the Octagon with the best in the world, but also capable of beating them, dominating the action once they’re in there.
He’ll bring the confidence garnered in that victory with him into battle against Burns, and though he knows where a win in Winnipeg would likely put him in the welterweight division, Malott is prioritizing being in the moment and appreciating this latest first in his fighting career above all else right now.
“It should put me somewhere around No. 10, and then we’re knocking on (the door of) Top 10 fights, but right now, I’m not thinking about that,” began the well-spoken Canuck. “I’m thinking about this upcoming fight, what I need to do in the gym tomorrow to best prepare for this, and not looking passed this moment at all because (1) this is a dangerous opponent, and… OH NICE!”
Malott chuckled as he suddenly erupted mid-thought.
“We’re passing a billboard right now with our fight flashing on the billboard!” he explained before returning to his original train of thought.
“I’m not looking past my opponent, but I also don’t want to look past this moment because this is a cool moment — my first man event. Danny Castillo is one of my Alpha Male coaches and he cornered me for Contender Series and my first two fights in the UFC, and before my debut when I fought Mickey Gall, he was like, ‘I’m sure you’ve got all sorts of feelings and I’m sure there is part of you that wants to fast-forward this, but this is the only UFC debut you’re gonna have. As much as that time might feel like a lot, you’re never gonna get that first again. Try to soak this up.
“He’s like, ‘I’m retired now, and as much as I remember that and I wanted to fast-forward, I’ll never get any of those feelings again and it’s such a unique feeling, so appreciate it, soak it up,’” added Malott, who now trains in both the Hamilton and Niagara regions with the likes of Jasmine Jasudavicius and Serhiy Sidey. “I think that is great advice, and I’m carrying it into this fight.
“I’m not trying to fast-forward this camp, I’m not trying to fast-forward this fight, I’m not trying to look past my opponent or the opportunity I have fighting in the main event. I’m looking to soak it all up, including the lead-up and the camp.”
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Throughout is rise, Malott has never been one to get too invested in where he’s fallen on the fight card, understanding that whether you’re the third fight of the night or third from last, you still have 15 minutes to work, and the end goal remains the same.
But headlining changes that calculus, and the Canadian standout is excited about the possibility of having an additional couple of rounds at his disposal, should he need them.
“It feels pretty awesome, and I feel very blessed, very fortunate to get to do this,” he said of headlining for the first time. “The placement on the card, as far as the actual fight, doesn’t change much, except now.
“This is the only time that it changes because now we get that extra fourth and fifth round where you get extra time to work, you get extra time to feel this guy out and impose our game. I’m excited to have some more time to work in there, if it’s necessary.”
