Mike Malott will compete on a pay-per-view event in his home country once again.
Multiple people with knowledge of the promotion’s plans confirmed to MMA Fighting that a welterweight matchup between Malott and Neil Magny is being targeted for UFC 297, which takes place Jan. 20 in Toronto.
Malott enters his highest profile fight on an impressive six-fight win streak, including three consecutive finishes to begin his UFC run. “Proper” most recently competed in Canada at UFC 289 in Vancourver when he stopped Adam Fugitt in a main card matchup in the second round. The Contender Series contract winner also has first-round stoppage wins over Yohan Lainesse and Mickey Gall inside the octagon.
Magny will look to bounce back from a lopside unanimous decision loss to Ian Machado Garry at UFC 292 in August. The 36-year-old will make his 32nd UFC appearance with the hope of kicking off 2024 in a big way following a 1-2 stint in 2023.
Sean Strickland (1) vs. Dricus Du Plessis (3)
Raquel Pennington (3) vs. Mayra Bueno Silva (1)
Neil Magny vs. Mike Malott
Jan Blachowicz (7) vs. Aleksandr Rakic (8)
Arnold Allen (6) vs. Movsar Evloev (T9)
Dominick Reyes vs. Carlos Ulberg
Brad Katona vs. Garrett Armfield
Chris Curtis vs. Marc-Andre Barriault
Charles Jourdain vs. Sean Woodson
Years ago when Malott was based in Hellifax me and him had some pretty good gym battles.
I beleive he was 4-0 in MMA in those days.
Personally speaking I thought he had the T.O big city dick head vibe.
This was years ago though we all grow and mature. He’s showed this tremendously by donating his purse to cancer research and Dana matching.
But I got to be honest back then he was pretty rude to me lol
That said I’m rooting for him.
1/20 Toronto
I was really surprised how Magny didn’t cope with that tall irish guy’s leg kicks!
I thought with his experience and similar size, he’d school him!
He looked like teh newby!
According to Aleksandar Rakic, Jan Blachowicz is out of their fight at UFC 297.
Rakic (14-3 MMA, 6-2 UFC) is scheduled to run things back with former light heavyweight champion Blachowicz (29-10-1 MMA, 12-7-1 UFC) on Jan. 20 at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, but Rakic claimed on Thursday in an X post that Blachowicz has withdrawn.
Blachowicz has not commented on Rakic’s claim as of this writing, nor has the UFC made an announcement regarding the matchup.
You can never lose a rematch when you pull out for the second time. Legendary Bullsh*t. Let’s see if the Samurai has the balls to step up on Jan 20th. @Mickmaynard2 @danawhite.”
“The Samurai” is in reference to former champion Jiri Prochazka (29-4-1 MMA, 3-1 UFC), whom Rakic has been eager to fight and traded barbs with in the past. Prochazka is coming off a knockout loss to Alex Pereira in their vacant title fight at UFC 295 in November.
Rakic hasn’t competed since blowing out his knee in a TKO loss to Blachowicz in May 2022. Prior to that, he scored back-to-back wins over Anthony Smith and Thiago Santos.
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