Veteran Canadian lightweight Mandel Nallo looks to make mark in UFC at age of 36

Mandel Nallo has paid his mixed martial arts dues. Now the veteran Canadian lightweight looks to reap the rewards in the UFC.

Nallo (14-3-0 with one no-contest) fought his way into the UFC on Sept. 2 with an impressive first-round knockout of Brazilian Samuel Silva on “Dana White’s Contender Series.”

It was a victory years in the making for the 36-year-old, who made his pro debut in November 2012.

“It kind of had to happen that way. But I’m glad I proved a lot of people right when they were telling me I deserved to be in the UFC a long time ago,” said Nallo.

He now has some certainty in his fighting future. How much depends on how he fares in the Octagon.

“The difference is I’m confident good news will come,” he said. “Whereas before signing to the UFC, you’re like just hoping for anything, kind of good or bad. Not even matchup-wise but ‘Am I going to have to fly across the world?’ ‘Is it going to be short-notice?’

“Whereas in the UFC at least you have some idea of what’s going to come from this.”

Nallo dropped Silva with a short right to the chin and then finished him off on the ground with four straight blows before the referee stepped in three minutes 29 seconds into the round.

A UFC contract quickly followed.

“I do not love your age but I love your style,” said UFC president Dana White. “Get over here, I’m going to give you a shot.”

Those who know Nallo expect him to make the most of the UFC opportunity.

“Keep your eye on him,” said former UFC champion Georges St-Pierre. “He’s very good.”

“‘I’m super-happy for him,” added Montreal bantamweight Aiemann Zahabi, a friend, former roommate and fellow UFC fighter. “Because it’s a long time coming for him to make it to the UFC and he’s sacrificed a lot. Now it tastes that much sweeter for him..”

The win over Silva was Nallo’s fifth straight first-round finish — and the 12th of his career.

Born in Vancouver to a father from West Africa and mother from England., Nallo grew up on Vancouver Island before moving to Ghana with his family when he was 10. Four or five years later, the family moved back to Canada to live in Ottawa. 

Nallo attended Carleton University for a year and a half before dropping out to focus on MMA.

Nallo now divides his time between Toronto, with his wife and their two kids, and Montreal, where he prepares for fights at the storied Tristar Gym.

In Toronto, he trains at Santos Brothers BJJ these days but, along with some friends, is also in the process of opening Tristar Toronto. Nallo plans to teach at the new gym when not training.

“Luckily for me, I’m pretty happy to scrape by. All I really care about is training,” said Nallo. “I didn’t really have to do much other than maybe teach a few private (lessons).”

He says watching Jackie Chan movies as a kid got him into martial arts, “just kind of falling in love with how amazing he could make choreographed martial arts look.”

With none of the sports in high school catching his eye, his mother signed him up to a Japanese jiu-jitsu class when he was 15 or 16.

“I just kind of took to it from there,” he said. 

He needed just 39 seconds to win his pro debut, stopping Joseph Latour with a head kick — after listening to shouted instructions from longtime coach Firas Zahabi.

“That was a good lesson learned,” said Nallo. “A nice way to start your career, for sure.”

Nallo started training at Tristar while living in Ottawa, commuting on weekends to train in Montreal with fellow fighter Nabil Khatib. That led to sparring with St-Pierre at Tristar ahead of St-Pierre’s fight with England’s Dan (The Outlaw) Hardy in March 2010 at UFC 111.

Nallo credits St-Pierre for helping him bounce back from his last loss, to American Adam (The Bomb) Piccolotti in March 2023 at Bellator 293 in Temecula, Calif. St-Pierre called him on the drive back to the airport after the submission loss.

“He just gave me some advice on how I should be competing — and maybe to help myself not get in my own head,” said Nallo. “That had always been a trouble of mine. Just overthinking and freezing in the big moments.”

He says the advice still resonates “and I use it to this day.”

Nallo has won five straight since exiting Bellator after the Piccolotti loss, leaving him with a 4-3-0 record with one no-contest in the promotion from 2018 to 2023. 

Nallo has used the unlikely nickname of “Rat Garbage” in the past.

He says the name came accidentally, from his days living in the Tristar dorms with other fighters, when he reluctantly started an Instagram account. 

“We kind of brainstormed a name that would be the antithesis of what you’re supposed do with an MMA Instagram (account). Rat Garbage was the available one,” he recalled. “If Rat Lord or Garbage King or any of those, had been available, that would have been my nickname but Rat Garbage was the one. And it’s just kind of stuck ever since. 

“People seem to like it,” he added with a chuckle.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 13, 2025.