Malott's Knee Flattens Buckley as Edmonton Delivers Upsets

Mike Malott closed the show early. A single knee found Joaquin Buckley's chin in round two and put him down without a twitch. The finish was instant highlight-reel material, and it capped a run of five straight octagon wins for the hometown Canadian. Whatever debate follows about how clean or lucky it looked, Malott walked away with a stoppage win over a ranked name and a case for contender status.

Jasmine Jasudavicius did her work the hard way. She took Erin Blanchfield down and kept her there, grinding out a unanimous decision in the co-main event that nobody outside her own corner expected. It was the best win of her career, and she wasted no time afterward calling for a crack at the flyweight title picture.

The undercard kept pace. Marc-Andre Barriault flipped a fight that looked to be going Kyle Daukaus's way, swarming him for a first-round finish. Stoppages piled up all night, and by the final horn Edmonton had tied the modern record with twelve finishes across thirteen bouts.

That kind of finishing rate meant bonus money got spread thin and argued over backstage. Malott and fellow Canadian Nallo each banked the night's biggest checks, fitting for a card that belonged to the home crowd.

Off the fight card, the week's other headline was Farid Basharat's release after going 7-0 inside the UFC. Dana White offered little beyond saying there were reasons behind the decision, leaving the undefeated bantamweight's departure as unfinished business heading into fall.

Reporting from Yahoo MMA, ESPN MMA, Sherdog.