Joaquin Buckley and Mike Malott Make Weight, Setting Up UFC Edmonton Grudge Match

The UFC Edmonton main event is officially locked in, which means we are less than 24 hours away from finding out if Joaquin Buckley's elite trash talk actually translates to the cage.

According to MMA Fighting, Buckley hit the scale at 170.5 pounds on Friday. Mike Malott also successfully made weight, officially green-lighting Saturday's welterweight headliner.

"Buckley called Malott 'just a pretty face' that will 'be laid out flat'"

Buckley has spent the entire week treating Malott like a catalog model who accidentally wandered into an octagon. He literally called Malott "just a pretty face" who is going to get laid out flat. It is top-tier fight week theater, but the talking stops when the cage door locks.

For Buckley, this fight is about keeping his momentum alive. The 32-year-old hasn't lost consecutive fights since 2022. That was back when he was fighting at middleweight and realized that taking punches from guys cutting down from 215 pounds is a terrible retirement plan. Dropping to 170 was the best business decision he ever made.

But Malott is not just showing up for a photoshoot. He is sitting on a 14-2-1 professional record and riding a four-fight win streak. You do not string together four straight wins in this sport just by having good bone structure.

The betting markets are treating this matchup with plenty of respect. Buckley is hovering around +114 at DraftKings as the slight underdog, stepping back into the mix after dealing with some recent injury downtime.

Saturday night in Edmonton is going to answer the only question that matters. Either Buckley backs up the microphone work with another viral knockout, or the guy he called a pretty face is going to ruin his weekend.