Mike Malott had something of a star turn at UFC 273 on Saturday night.
The Waterdown, Ontario-born fighter made the trip south to Jacksonville, Florida to make his promotional debut, after winning his way into the company on last year’s edition of Dana White’s Contender Series.
Needless to say, it was a successful coming out party for welterweight Malott (8-1-1), who face-planted Mickey Gall with a left hook.
“I was just some kid in Waterdown, Ontario, Canada with a stubborn dream of fighting in this cage with no proof that I was going to do it,” Malott exclaimed during his post-fight interview. He then made an incredibly generous offer: despite earning just $10,000 to show and another $10,000 to win on the biggest stage in mixed martial arts, he was going to contribute all of his show money to Team Alpha Male coach Joey Rodriguez Jr.
Rodriguez’s daughter Angie is currently battling stage 3 lymphoma.
Following Saturday’s event, UFC President Dana White promised to pick up the tab for the donation. And even increased it.
“He looked good. The kid looked good. He’s fun, he’s fun to watch,” White replied when asked about Malott during the UFC 273 post-fight press conference. “He can keep his ten grand, and I’ll do his show and his win, and I’ll donate it to his coach.”
It’s the second time in recent memory that the UFC has opted to foot the bill for a fighter’s charitable donation. Back in March, White pledged to do the same when Bryce Mitchell vowed to donate half his fight purse to a children’s charity in Arkansas.
In the meantime, Malott’s next fight could very well come at home. Despite White ruling out a potential trip to Australia this year, Toronto is among the cities he listed as possible hosts for upcoming UFC events.
“The place is still locked down. I can’t risk trying to bring a show over there, get there, and have it shut down,” White said when asked specifically about Australia. “I think that just happened to Formula 1, didn’t it?”
It did not. While the Australian Grand Prix was cancelled two years running, this year’s race at Albert Park in Melbourne went ahead, with 420,000 spectators attending the event.
Still, while White has seemingly ruled out a trip down under in 2022, he did state that the promotion was “pretty much back on the road again” when it came to taking the octagon outside the usual haunts of Las Vegas and Abu Dhabi. “We’re talking about possibly Boston, back to New York again, we’re looking at Salt Lake City, Utah. Seattle we were looking at. Toronto.”
So far in 2022, the UFC has visited Texas, Florida, California, Ohio, and made the trip to London, England for a wildly successful show at the O2 Arena last month.
