Belal Muhammad saw the Joaquin Buckley knockout like everyone else did, and three days later he raised his hand.
“Buckley got KOd out cold! If they offer me Mike Malott I am gonna say YES! Book it,” he wrote on X on Tuesday, in a post plugging his breakdown of UFC 333: Volkanovski vs. Evloev.
That’s a former UFC welterweight champion openly volunteering for the hottest name in the division right now. Muhammad (24-6) sits at No. 12 in the Knockout Daily welterweight rankings, and his most recent fight came on June 6. Malott (15-2-1) is two spots above him at No. 10, which makes this a rare case of an ex-champ calling up the ladder instead of down it.
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What Malott did in Edmonton
Malott put Buckley to sleep in Round 2 at UFC Edmonton on Oct. 17, in front of a home crowd that got exactly what it came for. The UFC’s own Paramount+ account wasted no time, posting that Canada now has a top-10 welterweight.
The night had a strange epilogue. At the post-fight press conference, Dana White was asked about Buckley refusing to shake his hand, and he told reporters, “As soon as he lost, I told Hunter to cut him,” before adding that he was joking. Nobody’s getting cut. Buckley’s just getting a very long week.
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For Malott, the Buckley finish caps a run that started on season 5 of Dana White’s Contender Series, where a first-round guillotine of Shimon Smotritsky earned him his contract. He debuted at UFC 273 in April 2022 with a first-round TKO of Mickey Gall, then stacked a pair of Performance of the Night bonuses against Yohan Lainesse and Adam Fugitt. His one UFC loss came against Neil Magny at UFC 297 in January 2024, a third-round TKO after Malott had controlled most of the fight. Since then he’s beaten Trevin Giles by decision and knocked out Charlie Radtke in Round 2 at UFC 315.
He’s also a guy who used to coach striking at Team Alpha Male, cornering Urijah Faber and Cody Garbrandt, which tells you plenty about why his hands look the way they do.
Why the fight makes sense
Muhammad’s whole career has been built on dragging people into deep water and making them stay there. Malott finishes people, period: seven UFC wins, and only one has gone the distance. A former champion trying to climb back against a surging contender who wants a name is the cleanest matchmaking logic the UFC has.
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The UFC hasn’t responded. Muhammad has, loudly, and Malott now has a former champion’s name sitting on his callout list without having to type a word.
