Mike Malott vs. Joaquin Buckley: Fight Odds and Analysis

Let's get to the main event as an example that is like a near pick-em type of deal. So Mike Malott is minus 125 right now. So Mike Malott is the Canadian fighter. He's on a four-fight win streak. He generally, listen, he always fights in Canada. And they really, you know, they built him up. You know how it operates. They go to different countries, and they want the local fighters to win. And Canadians have done a good job of taking advantage of it. but Malott's actually pretty good, right? But is he, like, good good? Is he championship contender good? I don't really think so. I think he's sort of mid-tier. But I'll tell you what, Buckley's a badass and has definitely fought tougher dudes than Mike Malott before. This is an intriguing fight to me. Not that Buckley can't handle wrestlers, but that's why he lost to Usman, right? That's why he lost to a Sean Brady. but malott's not a wrestler uh tom i don't need to tell you but for everybody tuning in malott's brother's in a National Hockey League like he's a classic you know canadian punch you in the face type of dude he's well rounded but you know you know what i'm saying he's not a wrestler uh tom so how do you break when you look at this fight what stands out to you because it is very evenly matched and buckley definitely has fought in tougher opponents yeah um when when i would You know how they show the card on the fights, the upcoming cards on the fights? I was watching with my buddy. I had a few drinks, and I'm like, Buckley, we're going to put all our money on Buckley. He's going to kill him a lot. Usually the first impression is the best one, Tom, for me. I know, I know. It's always that. Whenever I see a fight announced or fights announced, I'm like, oh, yeah, this guy's going to win. You start overthinking three months later and stuff in your head. Right, exactly. yeah the worry is that you know Malak can wrestle but he doesn't really wrestle i mean he does have that in his back pocket but the one fight where he did wrestle a lot and he landed four takedowns was the Neil Magny fight and we all know what happened there he gassed out he ended up getting tko'd at the end of that fight so there's these things with these fighters that are like semi you know Malak's not like the youngest guy in the world but he is kind of new to mma still you see them gas out in a fight and then you think well and now it's a five round fight can his cardio hold up and then you know somehow they train for five rounds and the cardio does hold up but you know this one's interesting to me because Malak could wrestle he's definitely got a path there but can his cardio hold up doing that over the course of five rounds does he mix it in you know maybe take downs late in rounds kind of just kind of you know do his thing but Buckley is you know like you said he's a really tough guy he he fought a lot of times at 185 he had some decent success up there he had some rough times as well um but he's a guy that's gonna he's gonna be there and we have seen a couple grapplers take him down and just kind of you know whitewash him on the mat but you know this you know Malat to me this is kind of a 50 50 on the feet i think buckley's a very good striker buckley's got very good cardio we know that for a fact he's going to be there late i think malat is a dangerous fighter i'm not super high on him i think he could you know have some success early in this fight and he could find a finish early but as the fight goes long i feel like buckley from what we've seen has the advantage here so you know i'm not i don't want to get too excited about buckley as as a massive dog here but i do feel like buckley is is a decent side and if i feel like if you're betting malat you're kind of betting him with the early props, you know, maybe getting an early finish. But the longer this fight goes, I feel like Buckley might be a good live spot.