Belal Muhammad believes the blueprint to beat Joaquin Buckley is there for Mike Malott, but can he implement it?
Buckley (21-8 MMA, 11-6 UFC) takes on rising welterweight contender Malott (14-2-1 MMA, 7-1 UFC) in Saturday's UFC Fight Night 291 (Paramount+) main event at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta.
Buckley has been been dominated on the ground in his past two losses to Kamaru Usman and Sean Brady, and former UFC welterweight champion Muhammad said the Canadian needs to try and get the knockout artist down.
"Keys to victory, I think for Malott, you've got to be smart," Muhammad said on his YouTube channel. "You've got to be very patient with your hands. Buckley throws wild punches, wild hooks. I think you've got to be moving forward. You can't
be backing up because if he gets you toward the fence, there's not a lot of lean back time, right? I think you've got to wrestle, you've got to grapple. They've been hyping up your grappling for a long time, and you really haven't showed much of it. You've been a knockout puncher, you've been a striker, and you're on a good run right now.
"We've seen what happened to Buckley's last two fights, right? Brady dominated him on the ground. Kamaru dominated him on the ground. I think you've just go take him to the ground. I don't see Buckley the type to get that much better. I mean, he did do RAF, and he did get a couple takedowns on Woodley, but I don't know. I just don't see him doing the right stuff. I think that he kind of coaches himself and does his own training regimen and figures that stuff out himself. That's hard to do if you don't have a coach that's watching you, pushing you, trying to teach you the stuff that you made mistakes on, like holding you accountable. It's hard to figure it out on your own."
Muhammad isn't sure if Malott has the grappling prowess to follow Usman and Brady's game plan, but he implores Buckley not to succumb to any control time.
"For Buckley, I think you've got to do the opposite," Muhammad continued. "You've got to move forward on him. You've got to get him backing up. You've got to hit him. He does a good job of setting up his punching, setting up his boxing. He has decent kicks, decent push kicks. I think off of his kicks, you come big hooks. Off of his straight punches, slipping uppercuts, hit your Mike Tyson underneath, but you've got to defend these takedowns. He's not a great wrestler. You've got to be able to keep it on the feet. Do not get taken down. If you do get taken down, bring your back to the fence and get your back sitting up. The last fight, you just laid down. You're waiting there, getting beat up on your back. You can't have that here."
Muhammad had a different pick initially but ultimately sided with the betting favorite.
"My pick, I don't know, man," Muhammad said. "I was swaying toward Buckley, but I don't see it. I see Malott just taking him down again and controlling him on the ground. Yeah, I think he'll be able to do that. I think he'll be able to get on top and control him or control him on the feet with his kicks and his straight punches. If he stays disciplined with his hands and his technique, not getting into brawls, not getting into war, I think he could point this one out."
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Ex-UFC champ questions if Joaquin Buckley truly prepared for Mike Malott
