Joaquin Buckley was looking to turn things around at UFC Edmonton, but his night ended in disastrous fashion. The 18-fight UFC veteran entered the event determined to bounce back from back-to-back losses, only to suffer another setback against Mike Malott in the main event.
Malott delivered a vicious second-round knockout, catching Buckley with a crushing knee at the 2:32 mark to hand him his third consecutive defeat. The finish was so devastating that even Buckley struggled to believe what had happened when he later watched the footage of the fight.
Joaquin Buckley Admits He’s Never Been Knocked Out Cold Like This Before
Buckley initially tried to look at the positives after his loss to Malott, even though the result was far from what he had hoped for. The welterweight had plenty of expectations riding on him heading into UFC Edmonton, but he was glad the main event still delivered an entertaining show for the fans.
Taking to social media, he said, “The fight didn’t go my way, not at all. There’s a lot of expectations, man, for me to go out there and knock Malott out. But at the end of the day, people were entertained, people enjoyed the show.”
Buckley also pointed out that he believed his performance helped bring more attention to MMA, despite coming up short. He added, “I truly believe that what I did, at the end of the day, it helped bring more eyes to the game, so regardless of what people say, no matter what’s going on, man, I’m just going to get back to work and just keep putting on for the name. I am Joaquin Buckley.”
Joaquin Buckley reacts after his KO loss to Mike Malott
“There was a lot of expectation for me to go and knock Malott out. People enjoyed the show, at the end of the day I brought more eyes to the game. Regardless of what people say I’ll just get back to work” https://t.co/THMrzWEQwj
— FULL SEND MMA (@full_send_mma) October 18, 2026
However, his reaction was very different when he revisited the finish on his Kick channel. Watching Malott’s knockout left Buckley stunned, with the veteran struggling to believe he had been put away so decisively. He even wondered if the footage was fake before admitting that he had never been knocked out in quite that manner.
Buckley reacted to the replay by saying, “Dang boy. I know I wasn’t laid out like that for real. That gotta be bul****t. That’s got to be AI. He caught me just like that, huh? Golly, f**k! I ain’t ever been out like that, bro. Yeah, that s**t sucked. I can’t even imagine that was me like that. Damn. Got me.”
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The knockout was particularly hard to process because Buckley had previously been stopped in his career but had never experienced a finish quite like this one. Reflecting on the difference, he said, “I’ve been knocked out before. I used to always say though, ‘but I ain’t never been slept though.’ That mothe*****er slept my ass.”
Buckley entered UFC Edmonton on the back of two decision losses to former 170lbs champion Kamaru Usman and fellow contender Sean Brady. Malott’s finish marked his first stoppage defeat in nearly four years, since his second-round TKO loss to Chris Curtis at UFC 282 in December 2022.