Six years and one week before he walks out at Rogers Place, Joaquin Buckley landed the spinning back kick. The anniversary passed on Oct. 10, and the clip made its rounds again. The Spinnin Backfist account marked the date, and Dovy (@DovySimuMMA) quoted it with a verdict that plenty of people would co-sign: “for me, this is the best UFC ko of all time.”
That kick follows Buckley everywhere. It’s the first thing anyone mentions, and it would be easy to let it stand in for the whole man. On Saturday, Oct. 17, in Edmonton, he gets 25 scheduled minutes against Mike Malott at welterweight to remind people there’s a career attached to the highlight. The card is set to start at 21:00 GMT.
The main event: Buckley vs. Malott
Start with the paper. Buckley comes in at 21-8. Malott is 14-2-1. That’s 29 pro fights against 17, a gap of a dozen bouts’ worth of walkouts, weight cuts and bad nights. Eight losses on Buckley’s record look like a lot until you remember he’s been fighting long enough to have a six-year-old anniversary for one knockout. Malott’s two losses and a draw tell you he’s been hard to beat cleanly, but they also tell you he hasn’t been in the room as often.
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The small window the fight week chatter gives into Buckley’s recent form came from the @JonnyBones account on X, in a thread that tagged Colby Covington’s account. The post pointed at someone, unnamed in the text itself, and said Buckley had “beat him like a stepchild,” before mocking that person for now talking about others getting beaten because of their energy levels. Whoever the target was, the gist of the post is that Buckley’s last memorable work was a beating, and that people inside the sport still bring it up unprompted.
Here’s how I see the stakes. Malott is the younger résumé, and a man at 14-2-1 getting a five-round headliner is the UFC telling you it thinks he’s worth building. Buckley has already been built, knocked down a few times and rebuilt. If Malott wins, he jumps a line he’s been waiting in. If Buckley wins, he keeps the door shut on a newer name and stays the welterweight nobody wants to draw on short notice.
The five-round format matters most to me. Buckley has 29 fights of reps at managing a night, including the nights that went sideways. Malott has fewer, and the championship distance is where inexperience tends to show up as small mistakes in the fourth round, a slow reset, a lazy exit from an exchange. Buckley is the kind of fighter who only needs one of those.
Pick: Joaquin Buckley by KO/TKO, Round 3. I don’t think it ends early. I think Malott has a good first round and maybe a better second, and then Buckley finds the same kind of shot that made him famous, though probably with his hands this time.
The co-main: Blanchfield vs. Jasudavicius
This is the fight on the card with the clearest line to a belt, and the women’s flyweight picture has shifted a lot in the last month.
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Valentina Shevchenko is no longer champion. Ariel Helwani reported earlier this week that she didn’t give up the title willingly while dealing with injuries, and that the UFC assured her a title shot would be waiting when she returns. Natalia Silva, the new champion, doesn’t sound like she’s holding a spot for anyone. She told MMA Fighting that she’s done chasing the old champion. “I don’t even have to think about Valentina,” Silva said, adding that the rankings and the queue have to be considered because “there are some girls who are doing really well and deserve to be fighting, you know?”
Bloody Elbow named Erin Blanchfield as one of those girls. Alexa Grasso won what was confirmed as a title eliminator against Manon Fiorot last month, but Silva has already beaten Grasso convincingly, which makes a rematch a tougher sell. That leaves room for Blanchfield (14-2) to make a case that she’s the fresher matchup.
Jasmine Jasudavicius (15-4) has her own reasons to wreck that plan. She has more wins than Blanchfield, and a win here would turn her from an opponent into a contender in one night. Over three rounds, though, I trust Blanchfield’s two losses in 16 fights more than Jasudavicius’s four in 19. Blanchfield fights like someone who knows a title shot is close and just needs to win clean.
Pick: Erin Blanchfield by unanimous decision. She banks rounds, Silva’s team takes notes, and Blanchfield calls for the belt in the post-fight interview.
Quick picks
Kyle Nelson (17-7-1) vs. Cristian Pérez (15-2), lightweight. Nelson has 25 pro fights and the scar tissue that comes with them. Pérez has two losses total. I’ll take the cleaner record in a fight where I expect neither man to get finished. Pérez by decision.
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Marc-Andre Barriault (17-11) vs. Kyle Daukaus (16-5), middleweight. Daukaus is one of the names on Gerald Meerschaert’s long list of recent losses, having submitted the veteran. Barriault has 28 fights and 11 losses, and the 11 matter here. Daukaus by submission, Round 2.
Louis Jourdain (9-3) vs. Timmy Cuamba (10-4), bantamweight. On paper this is about as close as a matchup gets, two fighters a win apart with similar mileage. I’ll go with the man with one fewer loss. Jourdain by decision.
Mandel Nallo (14-4) vs. Nate Landwehr (18-8), lightweight. Nallo’s last outing was rough. Jai Herbert stopped him by first-round TKO in April, in Canada, which MMA Mania described as hostile territory for Herbert. Coming off that kind of loss against a fighter with 26 pro bouts is a hard spot. Landwehr by KO/TKO, Round 2.
The prelims run deep with bantamweights, including the 9-0 Cody Chovancek against SuYoung You (16-4), which is worth turning on early for. Buckley and Malott close the night in Edmonton on Oct. 17, and I’m putting my name next to a third-round stoppage.
