“I love fighting because when you do it well, you get to feel like The Man, and I won, but I didn’t get that big, celebratory feeling that I was used to and, in a way, addicted to. Instead, it was like, ‘Look, man — life goes on; you get a win, you move in the right direction,’ and then was kind of rewarded with that next fight, where I went for it a little more, found the opening, and got the knockout over (Charles) Radtke, who is super-tough, and that felt like that old feeling again.
“It was good for me, the Giles fight and fighting in Edmonton,” continued Malott, who briefly broke into the Top 15 last October and will be looking to claim a more permanent place in the rankings with a win over Burns. “In the moment, it wasn’t as rewarding, but I knew it was what I needed. I kind of said it that night — ‘I know this is what I need moving forward; I needed to go 15 minutes tonight, I needed to feel more comfortable in there and feel the ground under my feet and rack up some more Octagon time.’
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“Before UFC Toronto, with four fights, including Contender Series, all four of those wins had totalled to less than one 15-minute win by decision,” he added. “As much as I had been in there four times, I had really only had a few minutes’ worth of experience, so getting some more time with that canvas under my feet was really helpful.”
He cleared the next hurdle on the road to headlining last fall in Vancouver, earning a unanimous decision win over Kevin Holland that confirmed for him that he’s capable of not only sharing the Octagon with the best in the world, but also capable of beating them, dominating the action once they’re in there.
He’ll bring the confidence garnered in that victory with him into battle against Burns, and though he knows where a win in Winnipeg would likely put him in the welterweight division, Malott is prioritizing being in the moment and appreciating this latest first in his fighting career above all else right now.