Malott Stops Buckley With Second-Round Knee in Edmonton Main Event

Mike Malott finally got his signature win on home soil, stopping Joaquin Buckley by knee at 2:32 of round two in Edmonton. It's the headline the card needed: the #12 welterweight didn't just beat a top-10 name, he handed Buckley — 21-9 with 15 knockouts of his own — the kind of clean, violent finish Buckley usually dishes out.

The number that matters most here is placement. Malott walked in ranked #12 and leaves having beaten the #10 man by stoppage. That's a guaranteed climb and, more importantly, proof that a fighter whose UFC story has been as much about near-misses and layoffs as highlights can perform when the lights are brightest and the building is pulling for him.

A Co-Main Upset That Reshapes 125

Jasmine Jasudavicius did the most consequential thing on the card that didn't involve a finish: she beat #4 Erin Blanchfield over three rounds by unanimous decision. Ranked #7 coming in, Jasudavicius has every reason to expect a leap up the women's flyweight ladder, and Blanchfield — long tabbed as a future title challenger — now has to rebuild some of the momentum this loss just drained.

For Jasudavicius, 16-4 and clearly peaking, this is the best win of her career by a distance. Beating a top-four fighter who still has 14 wins and five submissions on her ledger isn't a fluke of matchmaking; it's a statement that the flyweight contender picture has a new name in the conversation near the top.

The Undercard Was a Bloodbath

If you blinked during the lightweight bout, you missed it. Cristian Pérez needed 27 seconds to wipe out Kyle Nelson by punches, the fastest finish of the night and an emphatic way for the 16-2 prospect to announce himself. Nelson, the local veteran, never got going.

Marc-Andre Barriault gave the Canadian crowd another reason to roar, finishing Kyle Daukaus by elbows at 4:28 of round one. That's a notable result against a man carrying 12 career submissions — Daukaus is dangerous everywhere, and Barriault shut the door before any of it mattered. The win pushes the middleweight veteran to 18-11.

The carnage kept rolling. Timmy Cuamba submitted Louis Jourdain by neck crank in the second (2:48), while Mandel Nallo flattened the ever-game Nate Landwehr with punches just 47 seconds into round two. Nallo, now 15-4, grabbed arguably the best scalp of his career; Landwehr, 18-9, falls on the wrong side of another high-variance night.

What Comes Next

Malott should get a ranked opponent from inside the top 10 next — he's earned it, and a win over Buckley gives matchmakers an easy sell for a Canadian with legitimate pop. The logical move is to feed him someone established and see whether this is a genuine top-tier run or a great night against a favorable style.

Buckley, meanwhile, needs to reset. A stoppage loss stings more than a decision, but at 21-9 he's not far enough removed from relevance to panic. A bounce-back fight against a fellow top-15 welterweight makes sense; the division is deep enough that one bad night doesn't end anyone.

Jasudavicius has the clearest path of all. A top-five opponent — or a hard look at the title picture if the champion is tied up — is a reasonable next ask. Blanchfield, still only three losses into her career and loaded with finishing ability, is the kind of fighter who rebuilds fast; expect her matched tough and expect her to answer.

The prelims chipped in their share: Tanner Boser knocked out Jhonata Diniz in the third, Joel Faglier stayed unbeaten with a second-round stoppage of Javad Mahjoub, and the grapplers had a field day — Nick Galanti, Steven Koslow, Chelsea Chandler and SuYoung You all found submissions, with neck cranks and kimuras doing a disproportionate amount of the work.

The biggest takeaway is simple math: ten of thirteen fights on this card ended inside the distance, and the two most meaningful results — Malott over Buckley, Jasudavicius over Blanchfield — both scrambled their respective top tens. Edmonton didn't just give the home crowd a show; it reshuffled two divisions in a single night.