After Mike Malott’s victory over Gilbert Burns at UFC Fight Night in Winnipeg, a moment caught on camera sparked controversy among Canadian fans. As Malott climbed to the top of the cage to celebrate, someone reached up and took the Canadian flag from his hands.
Appearing on The Ariel Helwani Show, Malott broke down exactly what happened and revealed it was not the first time he had dealt with the same situation.
When Helwani brought it up, Malott made clear this was not a new experience. He traced it back to a previous match in Montreal.
“When I was in Montreal, I went to go lift the flag and the… I don’t know if it was a commission guy or who it was… they’re like, ‘Oh, you’re not allowed to have it in the octagon,'” he explained. “So I said, ‘Can I jump up on the side?’ He said, ‘Yeah, sure.’ So I jumped up and then I lifted the flag.”
Even that compromise did not go the way Malott had hoped.
“So I skipped the first process and jumped up to go grab the flag. And as I’m pulling it up, he snatched it out of my hand,” Malott said. “And he did it all sh**ty, too, where he like snatched it and like looked at me like this. And I was like, ‘Dude, what the h*ll, man? Number one, don’t try and like be a tough guy to me. Like I just competed. And then number two, like I don’t understand what the rule is that I couldn’t have that flag. I walked out with it.'”
What made the Winnipeg moment sting a little more was how much mental preparation Malott had put into getting it right this time.
“I spent eight weeks visualizing getting to reenact that,” he said. For him, hoisting the flag carries genuine meaning. “I enjoy getting to hoist the flag, right? Like I’m proud to be Canadian and I’m proud to be in a room full of primarily Canadians, getting to perform in front of everyone and getting to compete out there with the flag metaphorically on my back. I want to physically and literally have the flag on my back when I’m in there.”
Helwani pointed out that manager Danny Rubenstein had tweeted that athletes cannot have a flag covering sponsors, but noted Malott had actually been sitting on top of the UFC Fight Pass logo at the time. Malott was not convinced by the reasoning either.
He said, “The flag wouldn’t have blocked anything. My legs are blocking something, but the flag wouldn’t have blocked anything.”
Asked whether he followed up with anyone from the promotion afterward, Malott kept it simple. “No,” he said. “It’s all good.”
