Joaquin Buckley replaces Sean Brady, faces Vicente Luque at UFC Atlantic City

UFC Atlantic City took a hit recently when the welterweight headliner between no. 6 ranked Sean Brady (16-1) and no. 9 ranked Vicente Luque (22-9-1) fell through.

As a result the UFC brass decided to give top flyweight contenders Erin Blanchfield (no. 2, 12-1) and Manon Fiorot (no. 3, 11-1) the main event slot, a title eliminator bout at 125 lbs.

Vicente Luque was finally given a replacement opponent as well, 2020 Knockout of the Year winner Joaquin Buckley (17-6).

Following defeat in his UFC debut, Luque would go 14-2 with 13 finishes over the course of his next 16 appearances from 2015 to 2021, only losing to future, now current UFC welterweight champion Leon Edwards (UD) and former two-time title challenger Stephen Thompson (UD) in that time.

Luque would go 0-2 in 2022 however, dropping his next two-straight to no. 2 ranked Belal Muhammad (UD) in their rematch, someone he KO’d stiff in their first fight, and no. 8 ranked Geoff Neal (KO), the only man to ever stop him with strikes.

This brings us up to Luque’s most recent appearance, where he defeated former UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos (UD) over the course of their five round main event last August.

Joaquin Buckley on the other hand just moved back down to welterweight last May.

Debuting in the UFC up in the middleweight division Buckley would lose his promotional debut to Kevin Holland (TKO) before going 5-1 over his next six with four knockouts. Buckley then dropped two-straight to no. 8 ranked Nassourdine Imavov (UD) and no. 13 ranked Chris Curtis (KO).

Buckley decided he needed to move back down to 170 lbs where he fought pre-UFC, and it’s worked well for him thus far as he’s gone 2-0 with wins over Andre Fialho (TKO) and Alex Morono (UD).

Who comes out of this welterweight contest going down at UFC Atlantic City the victor?

UFC Atlantic City goes down on March 30, 2024, live from the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

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Brady Ordway

I became a fan of combat sports when I was 12 years old. I was scrolling through the channels and landed upon Versus, where WEC was televised. Urijah Faber fought Jens Pulver for the second time that night. That's the first fight I ever saw, and I was immediately hooked. So eventually, I began covering the sport in the fourth quarter of 2018, and have since started writing about animals as well. If you'd like to see those pieces, be sure to check out learnaboutnature.com!

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