Why Mandel Nallo embraced ‘Rat Garbage’ nickname on journey to UFC

It’s not often that a fighter who’s described as the best striker at their gym or as creative in the cage as Jon Jones gets a nickname as conventionally unflattering as “Rat Garbage.”

Yet it’s fitting, considering nothing about Mandel Nallo’s winding journey in mixed martial arts has followed a standard path.

From hiding ankle weights under his jeans in high school to gain strength to spending over a decade grinding through pro circuits, it’s all been part of Nallo’s “odd” story as he described. But now, it’s that very same unorthodox trek that has led the Canadian toward his UFC debut on Saturday.

And make no mistake, when he steps into the Octagon at Winnipeg’s Canada Life Centre, the Vancouver-born fighter understands the task at hand. Not only to defeat his lightweight opponent, Jai Herbert, but to make sure fight fans understand exactly what “Rat Garbage” is all about.

“You have to set the tone,” Nallo told Sportsnet. “In your first fight in the UFC you have to set the tone of how you’re going to be viewed by the company and by the fanbase. … A lot of guys who come into the UFC, they make a big splash initially and then they are allowed some grace in their subsequent fights.

“But if you have a stinker of a fight in your debut, that stain stays on you for a very long time. So, it’s important to show your best stuff out there — that’s the goal.”

Getting his hand raised certainly won’t be easy to accomplish against Herbert, who’s not only 13-6-1 as a pro, but who “never has an off night” according Nallo.

Still, the Canadian has an abundance of faith in his “creative striking style” that he believes separates him in MMA and will also be what he leans on against a fighter as “sharp” as Herbert.

“I think that where I shine against everybody is in my ability to do things that their training partners don’t do,” the Tristar Gym product explained. “And it’s very difficult to find somebody similar to me who picks the spots to attack that I do.”

Words that are easy to believe for those who saw Nallo’s contract-earning performance on the Dana White Contender Series last year when he knocked out Samuel Silva in under four minutes. The 36-year-old showed off his striking chops when a subtle-but-lethal straight right connected on his Brazilian opponent’s chin, crumpling Silva to the floor and unloading a barrage of ground-and-pound shots.

The TKO win improved Nallo’s record to 14-3 in the sport, he maintained his 100 per cent finishing rate, and it marked his fifth consecutive first-round stoppage victory since 2023. It also made him the oldest contract winner in Contender Series history.

Signing fighters in their mid-to-late thirties has rarely been a habit of UFC brass, which president Dana White reminded Nallo of right after his DWCS win, saying: “I do not love your age but I love your style. … I’m going to give you a shot.”

Nallo wasn’t phased and let it be known immediately that he’s “not a prospect. I’m a finished product. You can plug me in anywhere.”

Although, it’s hard to ignore that his path to “finished product” was undoubtedly a long one.

He made his pro debut in 2012 after three years of amateur bouts. Nallo soared as high as the Bellator MMA ranks thanks to a 7-0 start his pro career, before adversity inevitably struck. He went 2-3-1 over his next six fights with all those losses by stoppage — a slump that fortunately prompted wisdom from a MMA legend and Tristar teammate, Georges St-Pierre.

Following a submission loss to Adam Piccolotti in Bellator in 2023, the UFC Hall of Famer called Nallo and provided “advice on how I should be competing, and maybe help myself not get in my own head,” according to an interview with the Canadian Press.

And while they haven’t chatted much heading into Satuday, Nallo said that St-Pierre is “always around and giving out nuggets of gold.”

Someone who has been around Nallo plenty is UFC bantamweight contender Aiemann Zahabi, a Tristar teammate, friend since their teens and someone “cut from the same cloth” as the 38-year-old described.

“He really wants his work to do the talking and we’re very similar in that sense,” Zahabi told Sportsnet, as the Montreal native took a break from prepping for his own big fight against former champ Sean O’Malley at the upcoming UFC Freedom 250 card. “He’s done all the work and like he said on the Contender Series ‘I’m a finished product.’ He doesn’t need tune-up fights or growth fights. … I feel like the opportunity they gave him is good. (Herbet is) someone who’s really in the middle of the pack.

“They didn’t give him another guy who’s debuting, right? They didn’t give him someone too far up in the rankings or too big of a name to kind of snuff Mandel’s career out. I really feel (the UFC is) giving him his fair shake and I think he’s gonna really seize the opportunity.”

But how exactly did Nallo go from his cold streak of two wins in six fights to five straight victories, shaking hands with the UFC’s big boss and signing a deal to debut on home soil?

According to Zahabi, it was exactly those lows that helped Nallo turn a corner and develop into a more “seasoned” pro.

“Some fighters, they need a couple of losses,” the No. 6-ranked bantamnweight explained. “And I feel like now Mandel he’s ready to really make this run. … He always gives every inch of himself in all his fights, that’s why he’s never been to a decision, but I feel like now he’s also managing and making better choices earlier in the fight and picking his moments a little better than he used to.”

Undoubtedly, that’s an informed opinion from Zahabi, not just as a teammate who observes Nallo in the gym but also as a training partner that works with him directly. In fact, with their upcoming fights separated by two months, the gap has lended itself for the pair to prepare in the cage together.

“It’s been perfect because there’s just enough space between our fights for us to focus on each other,” Nallo said. “And towards the beginning of this camp when the fight was announced — I would say I’m the most similar to O’Malley in the gym — we got to do some moving around, and moving around with Aiemann is always fun and it’s a special experience.”

Zahabi and fellow Tristar teammate Louie Sanoudakis brainstormed the title when helping Nallo think of a social media handle to garner sponsors, which is an important footnote on the moniker’s origins because “you can never choose your nickname” according to Mr. Rat Garbage himself.

Nallo embraced the nickname once it was reinforced by his colleagues, including Zahabi, who belives “it fits who he is because he didn’t necessarily want to be (a social media personality), so it’s kind of a joke in itself that all these guys want to take themselves so seriously … (using) whatever generic nicknames to sound cool and to sound tough, and I think it represents that Mandel doesn’t need anything to do the promoting for him other than his fighting. So he went with something so obscure — and maybe also to humble himself — if he calls himself Rat Garbage, he doesn’t want the fame to get to his head.”

Zahabi made sure to mention that Nallo’s stardom is indeed “coming” because he’s not only an exciting fighter, but he’s a “very intelligent man and puts a lot of thought into these things. (His success) is no accident, and he carries himself with a lot of style … he’s a very cool guy.”

Which checks out, because when asked about his honest thoughts on the nickname, Nallo’s response was cucumber-levels of cool.

“It’s about going with the flow. I’m not getting my hackles up about being called something as outlandish as Rat Garbage,” he explained. “When it started to stick, I’ve embraced it and it’s become somewhat of a brand … it’s fitting because I am a bit of an odd guy. I make decisions purely based on what I think is the best thing, and that’s not usually what the standard thing is.”

Nallo’s taken to the nickname so much that he’s been designing a t-shirt during fight week for the Rat Garbage brand to commemorate his UFC debut.

An added level of effort he’s willing to committ to because Nallo is aware how much he’ll be embraced by the local crowd when he steps into the cage on Saturday.

“The main thing for Canadian fans to understand about me is that I really love Canada. Born in Vancouver, raised in small town BC, later lived in Ottawa, Montreal and now settled in Toronto,” Nallo added. “I really do appreciate Canadian culture. I’m proud to be representing us and fighting in Winnipeg … it really doesn’t get better than this.”

So, when Nallo walks out to what’s sure to be a roaring ovation, he’ll do so with immense pride, both for his country and a milestone nearly two decades in the making.

A journey of many ups and downs that includes a nickname that, like his fight game, set quite the tone.