Last night (Sat., Oct. 17, 2026), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) ventured forth to Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada for UFC Edmonton. In the main event, Canada’s fighting pride Mike Malott aimed to continue climbing the Welterweight ranks by taking out Joaquin Buckley in his second consecutive main event. Much of Canada’s other top MMA talent made its way to the ring as well, including top-ranked Jasmine Jasudavicius and Bantamweight prospect Louis Jourdain.
Let’s take a closer look
at the best performances and highlight finishes of the evening:
Malott’s Crushing KO
Mike Malott put on a Muay Thai clinic to score the most impressive win of his professional career.
Welterweight Joaquin Buckley is a powerhouse, yet Malott calmly picked him apart. He didn’t do so without careful decision-making, however. In the first round, Malott avoided most of the exchanges, blasting powerful kicks into the mid-section and arms of Buckley to slow down the ferocious puncher. He only planted his feet and looked for counters on a couple of occasions, otherwise taking the time to get a sense of his opponent’s speed and range.
In round two, Malott quickly scored with a counter combination that encouraged Buckley to push into the clinch. From there, Malott wore on his opponent, hanging on the arms and delivering about a half-dozen hard knees into the mid-section. When both men separated after a couple minutes, they were each a little winded from the grueling clinch work.
Malott didn’t take that time to rest, however. Instead, he stood his ground in front of a slower opponent, and when Buckley tried to push forward, he was much easier to time with an intercepting high kick/knee. The point of the knee landed perfectly on the chin, sending Buckley’s mouthpiece rocketing across the Octagon and scoring Malott the best victory of his career.
Welcome to the Top 10, “Proper” Mike.
Perez Steamrolls The Monster
Cristian Perez smoked Kyle Nelson in just 27 seconds.
After attempting an Imanari roll to open the bout, the 27-year-old prospect ate a clean right hand from Nelson. This only sparked a surge of aggression, as “Puas” jumped on his opponent with a relentless string of power punches. Nelson tried to cover up and back off, but an uppercut snuck through the guard and stunned him badly. A few more clean connections sent him wrestling the ref, making for a memorable debut for the Mexican standout.
In addition, this may be the end of the brief Kyle Nelson resurgence, as he’s now lost three of his last four via KO. It’s always possible he’s kept around for the next Canada card, but it doesn’t look like he’s going to win many more UFC fights.
Vintage Power Bar
Marc-Andre Barriault bounced back last night at Kyle Daukaus’ expense.
Daukaus started well, scoring a takedown along the fence and putting Barriault in some difficult positions on the floor. When he scrambled to his feet, however, Daukaus insisted on staying in the clinch and pressing Barriault into the fence — that’s Barriault’s wheelhouse! He’s a damn good in-fighter, and he set up a beautiful counter knee, using a frame to let Daukaus push his own face right into the path of the knee.
That was the beginning of the end. A few more elbows and close range punches crumbled Daukaus to the canvas, bringing Barriault’s recent record to 2-2. He’s not a contender, but the Canadian bruiser still has some gas in the tank.
Remembering Nate the Train
Dear lord, Mandel Nallo obliterated Nate Landwehr in the latter’s UFC Lightweight debut.
Nallo imposed his range advantage beautifully. He established his jab early on and then his offense started flowing. He built combinations and tagged Landwehr repeatedly with his right hand on the counter. All the while, he was kicking the calf often. Just three minutes into the fight, Landwehr’s face was a bloody mess. A minute later, he could hardly stand on his lead leg.
It was a one-sided mauling, and the corner should have saved Landwehr. Instead, they sent him back out for another minute of savagery.
Alas, 38-year-old Landwehr is well past his best-by date. He’s no longer capable of enduring damage and coming back stronger, and his historically shaky defense is now downright porous. Just a couple years ago, Landwehr was genuinely a high-level Featherweight capable of strong performances, somebody who knocked on the door of a UFC ranking. It’s a shame to see his prime end so quickly, but “The Train” gave us plenty of incredible moments in a short amount of time.
“Whoop my ass and see what happens!”
D-1 Bulldozer
Edmonton’s own Tanner Boser earned Canada its first victory of the evening after a string of disappointing losses and subpar performances (see below).
The situation was a little hairy early on. Jhonata Diniz pressured Boser to the fence, chopped the leg, and was firing straighter punches. He also looked quite a bit bigger than the former 205-pounder. Fortunately, Boser found a solution to his problem: Diniz can’t wrestle at all! Boser shot three takedowns and landed all three. At first, Diniz was big and strong enough to prevent too much damage from landing.
By round two, he was tired, and Boser was able to employ the old Roy Nelson special: the top side crucifix! He beat the absolute crap out of Diniz from that position, nearly finishing him in round two. Bloodied and battered, Diniz took many more blows on the canvas before the referee mercifully intervened in the third.
He showed a lot of heart but very little defensive grappling, which was a theme of the evening.
Additional Thoughts
- Timmy Cuamba defeats Louis Jourdain via second-round rear naked choke: Cuamba is better than his previous 2-3 UFC record implies, particularly since he didn’t find his proper weight class until his fourth UFC bout. He looked sharp here, working through Jourdain’s kicks and flashy offense to land quality boxing combinations and set up his takedowns. He soundly outwrestled the Canadian prospect, wearing him down with heavy top pressure to open up the strangle. It was smart, well-rounded work from “Twilight,” who is still just 27 years of age himself.
- Nick Galanti defeats Julien LeBlanc via first-round rear naked choke (highlights): I have no idea how to recap this fight in an interesting fashion. Galanti took his opponent down, moved to the back, and choked him out in less than 90 seconds. None of those three steps seemed particularly difficult for him. Maybe the 9-1 prospect from New Jersey is just a next-level elite grappler employing micro details to his advantage that are invisible to the naked eye … or maybe Julien LeBlanc’s grappling just kind of sucks. He’s now 0-2 in the UFC with two quick rear naked choke losses and barely landed a punch in the process, so I lean towards the latter.
- Joel Faglier defeats Javid Mahjoub via second-round knockout (highlights): Ah, debuting Heavyweights. Question: how often do you see the Homer Simpson strategy working perfectly in the UFC? Answer: more than you should. Mahjoub knocked Faglier down about three times in the first round then nearly suffered a cardiac event while sitting on the stool between rounds. Faglier entered the second no worse for wear and — my complaining aside — smartly started ripping the body. Mahjoub, a decorated Judoka, collapsed when he attempted a clinch, curled up on the canvas, and that was that! Go to your local dive bar, and you might see fights of a similar quality.
- Katlyn Cerminara defeats Mackenzie Stiller via first-round knockout: What are the odds that Katlyn Cerminara would provide the night’s first knockout after a 2.5 year layoff due to the birth of her child? There was no ring rust for the “Blonde Fighter,” who took just a minute or so to find her range before quickly picking apart Stiller. I must confess that Stiller looked a bit hapless in the cage, turning away from punches and running off sideways in an attempt to find safety — it didn’t work. Nevertheless, former title challenger Cerminara appeared to be in her old form, so might as well throw her in the cage with a ranked opponent once again and see what happens.
- Steven Koslow defeats Chad Anheliger via third-round rear naked choke: The most interesting part of this one-sided fight was that Koslow has been out of action for nearly four years. Once in the cage, however, he was much stronger and faster than Anheliger, allowing him to land takedowns with authority. Anheliger hung tough through multiple submission attempts for quite a while, but Koslow locked in a rear naked choke in the closing minute, and there was no escape possible. Now 1-1 in the UFC, hopefully Koslow doesn’t take another multi-year hiatus!
- Chelsea Chandler defeats Melissa Croden via first-round kimura: Don’t look now, but Chelsea Chandler has won two straight UFC fights! Her standup is still subpar — she spent most of this fight getting touched up on the feet — but Chandler’s ground game is genuinely dangerous. She managed to bloody up Croden in the clinch and then countered a grappling attempt with the kimura. She might have done real damage with the hold, as she really cranked on the shoulder before the tap came.
- Su Young You defeats Cody Shovancek via third-round kimura (highlights): South Korea’s You was impressive here. The Road to UFC veteran soundly controlled Shovancek for most of three rounds, continually taking him down without much difficulty. He didn’t do a ton of damage with his top position, but he kept advancing position and eventually locked up the late kimura finish. That’s a nice rebound performance to bring his total UFC record to 4-1.
