Malott KOs Buckley with a Flying Knee in Edmonton — the Night Canada's 0-6 Nightmare Turned Into a Dream

File photo: the Octagon during a UFC event at the SAP Center in San Jose (Ron Hall / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0) — not Saturday's card in Edmonton.

For the first six fights of the night, you could hear it in Rogers Place. That nervous, sinking quiet of a home crowd watching its own get picked apart.

Canadian fighters were 0-6 to start UFC Fight Night 291 on Saturday. Six fights, six losses, and a building full of people doing the math on what the main event might look like.

Then the night flipped — violently, gloriously, and exactly the way only fight sports can flip.

The knee that ended the argument

Mike Malott walked into the main event as the underdog story of the evening: a 34-year-old from Waterdown, Ontario, fighting the biggest name of his career in Joaquin Buckley, in front of a home crowd that desperately needed something to cheer about.

At 2:32 of the second round, he gave them the loudest moment of the night. Malott (15-2-1 MMA, 8-1 UFC) landed a knee that folded Buckley (21-9, 11-7) and ended the fight on the spot — a highlight-reel knockout, per MMA Junkie's live coverage, in the UFC's first Edmonton card since 2024.

There was a subplot, too. At Friday's ceremonial weigh-ins, Buckley had walked straight past Dana White's outstretched hand and squared up to Malott instead, the Canadian flag draped over Malott's shoulders. Asked about the snub at the post-fight press conference, White deadpanned: "As soon as he lost, I told Hunter, cut him." Then he grinned: "I'm f***ing joking. I have no problem with Joaquin Buckley."

Malott's win earned him a $100,000 Performance of the Night bonus — one of four handed out, alongside Mandel Nallo, Joel Faglier and Marc-André Barriault, according to Combat Sports UK. Every other fighter who finished their bout took home $25,000.

The upset nobody saw coming

If the main event was the exclamation point, the co-main was the plot twist. Jasmine Jasudavicius, fighting out of St. Catharines, Ontario, took a unanimous decision (29-28 on all three cards) over Erin Blanchfield in a key women's flyweight bout — a genuine upset over a fighter most had pencilled in as a future title challenger.

The official UFC scorecards tell the story of control: Jasudavicius (16-4, 10-3 UFC) landed 4 of 6 takedowns, held nearly seven minutes of control time to Blanchfield's thirteen seconds, and attempted three submissions. Blanchfield (14-3, 8-2) never found an answer. After the win, Jasudavicius did what you're supposed to do after beating a top contender — she called for a title shot.

The comeback started with Boser

The turnaround actually began one fight earlier. Tanner Boser, Edmonton's own, stopped Jhonata Diniz by TKO at 4:26 of the third round — the first Canadian win of the night, in front of his hometown crowd, snapping that brutal 0-6 start. Barriault's first-round TKO of Kyle Daukaus (4:28) and Cristian Perez's 27-second demolition of Kyle Nelson — the fastest finish of the night — piled on before the two headliners closed the show.

It was, by the end, an all-finishes kind of undercard: as Bleacher Report's live blog noted, the prelims and main card were stacked with stoppages. Steven Koslow submitted Chad Anheliger by rear-naked choke at 4:31 of round three in his return after four years away; Timmy Cuamba choked out Louis Jourdain; Nick Galanti, Katlyn Cerminara, Chelsea Chandler and SuYoung You all finished inside the distance.

What it means

For Malott, Saturday was a career-defining night — the kind of win that moves a "good but not great" welterweight, as Bleacher Report framed him before the fight, into the conversation with the division's contenders. For Jasudavicius, it's a win that should put her one fight from a title shot. And for the Edmonton crowd, it was the full emotional arc: six straight losses, then a hometown TKO, a 27-second knockout, a Canadian woman upsetting a title favourite, and a flying knee to send everyone home happy.

Not a bad night's work for a city that hadn't hosted the Octagon in two years.

Full results — UFC Fight Night 291, Rogers Place, Edmonton

• Mike Malott def. Joaquin Buckley via KO (knee) — Round 2, 2:32
• Jasmine Jasudavicius def. Erin Blanchfield via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
• Cristian Perez def. Kyle Nelson via KO (punches) — Round 1, 0:27
• Marc-André Barriault def. Kyle Daukaus via TKO — Round 1, 4:28
• Timmy Cuamba def. Louis Jourdain via submission (rear-naked choke) — Round 2, 2:48
• Mandel Nallo def. Nate Landwehr via TKO — Round 2, 0:47
• Tanner Boser def. Jhonata Diniz via TKO — Round 3, 4:26
• Nick Galanti def. Julien Leblanc via submission — Round 1, 1:26
• Joel Faglier def. Javad Mahjoub via TKO — Round 2, 2:11
• Katlyn Cerminara def. Mackenzie Stiller via TKO — Round 1, 4:46
• Steven Koslow def. Chad Anheliger via submission (rear-naked choke) — Round 3, 4:31
• Chelsea Chandler def. Melissa Croden via submission (kimura) — Round 1, 4:52
• SuYoung You def. Cody Chovancek via submission (kimura) — Round 3, 4:19

Sources

• MMA Junkie — "UFC Edmonton results: Mike Malott annihilates Joaquin Buckley with savage knee" (Oct 17, 2026) — mmajunkie.usatoday.com
• UFC.com — "UFC Edmonton Official Scorecards" (Oct 17, 2026) — ufc.com
• MMA Mania — "UFC Edmonton live results, highlights, play-by-play" (Oct 17, 2026) — mmamania.com
• Bleacher Report — "UFC Fight Night: Buckley vs. Malott Live Updates, Highlights and Results" (Oct 17, 2026) — bleacherreport.com
• Combat Sports UK — "Mike Malott knocks out Joaquin Buckley in round two at UFC Edmonton" (Oct 18, 2026) — combatsportsuk.com