UFC welterweight Mike Malott had a very successful night at UFC Fight Night 273 when he not only defeated Gilbert Burns via TKO, but he did it in front of his fellow countrymen and countrywomen as the event took place in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. However, Malott was involved in a bizarre incident after the fight as he went to hoist the Canadian flag above his head in victory, only for the flag to be ripped out of his hands whilst sitting on top of the cage.
UFC officials took Mike Malott’s Canadian flag during his post-fight celebration last night
Fighters can walk out with flags, but aren’t allowed to bring them into the Octagon since they block sponsors logos, per @dannyrubepic.twitter.com/ID5g2DYoAX
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) April 19, 2026
Malott was a recent guest on “The Ariel Helwani Show” where he was asked about this incident and if he knew why it happened, to which Malott had no idea. “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.’ So I said ‘Can I jump up on the side?’ He said ‘Yeah sure.’ So I jumped up and then I lifted the flag. So I skipped the first process and jumped up to go grab the flag and as I’m pulling up, he snatched it out of my hand, and he did it all s***** too where he like snatched it and like looked at me like this. I was like ‘Dude, what the hell man?’ Number one, don’t try and like be a tough guy to me, like I just fought right? And then number two, like I don’t understand what the rule is that I couldn’t have the flag. I walked out with it.”
Both Malott and Helwani speculated that it might have been something to do with sponsors not wanting to be covered up by flags when those businesses have paid for their logos to be printed somewhere on the cage. However, Helwani pointed out that Malott actually sat on the UFC Fight Pass logo, rendering that argument useless. Malott rounded off by saying that he spent eight weeks visualizing himself hoisting the flag again in his home country, and while he was annoyed by it, he admitted that it isn’t the end of the world.
Please credit “The Ariel Helwani Show” when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
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