UFC Edmonton: all 26 fighters on weight – Malott recalls his early doubters
Buckley and Malott both weighed 170.5 pounds. The Canadian recalls being told he would never make the UFC. The main card starts Saturday at 8 p.m. ET.
Symbolic image · Photo: D. Benjamin Miller / Wikimedia Commons, CC0 (cropped and resized)
The official weigh-ins for UFC Edmonton went off without incident: all 26 fighters across the 13 bouts made weight on Friday. Headliners Joaquin Buckley (21-8) and Mike Malott (14-2-1) both came in at 170.5 pounds (77.3 kg) for their five-round welterweight bout at Rogers Place. In the co-main event, Erin Blanchfield (125 pounds) and Jasmine Jasudavicius (124.5) meet at women's flyweight.
Malott, who has won his last four fights and headlined for the first time in April at UFC Winnipeg with a win over Gilbert Burns, told Sherdog that many people once doubted he would make the UFC – including people who knew him growing up. One line has stayed with him: "You go to a private school; you're not going to be a UFC fighter." Gratitude is central to his process: "This isn't guaranteed for anyone."
Buckley arrives in Edmonton on back-to-back decision losses. The prelims start at 5 p.m. ET on Saturday (23:00 in Germany), the main card at 8 p.m. ET (2:00 a.m. Sunday in Germany).