Joaquin Buckley victorious in welterweight debut, floors Andre Fialho with nasty head kick at UFC Vegas 73

The Ultimate Fighting Championship returned to us today, May 20, 2023, for UFC Vegas 73, going down live from the UFC Apex in Enterprise, Nevada.

Headlining the event is a women’s strawweight encounter between no. 8 ranked BJJ sensation Mackenzie Dern (12-3) and no. 14 ranked kickboxer Angela Hill (15-12).

Co-headlining is a middleweight showdown between surging talents Edmen Shahbazyan (12-3) and Anthony Hernadnez (10-2, 1 NC).

Our second bout going down on the main card tonight came in the welterweight division, as former middleweight talent Joaquin Buckley (16-6) decided to drop down in weight following a two-fight skid up at 185 lbs. He faced fellow striker Andre Fialho (16-7, 1 NC), who though has had some good success within the promotion, also came in tonight on a two-fight losing streak.

Of Buckley’s 15 wins coming in, 11 came via knockout, while of Fialho’s 16 wins, 13 came via knockout.

Continue reading to see how this epic welterweight showcase went down:

Official Result: Joaquin Buckley def. Andre Fialho via KO (head kick) at 4:15 of round two

Fialho is very patient through the opening three or so minutes of the fight, allowing Buckley to unload punches whilst evading most of them and making his reads. He ends up cracking Buckley with a knee and also lands a nice punch shortly thereafter.

Buckley’s athleticism was shown in the first five minutes, as he secured two double leg takedowns, driving straight through Fialho each time. Fialho’s hips were on display as well, as he got right back to his feet after each takedown was landed.

Fialho lands two good right hands in the first minute of round two, the first of which wobbles Buckley a bit.

Buckley fires right back however, trying to get the hit back on FIalho.

Later on in the round Buckley floors Fialho with a nasty head kick, KO’ing him on the spot. The referee didn’t initially stop the action and Fialho ate an unnecessary blow following, but this was a beautiful knockout victory for Joaquin Buckley.

JOAQUIN BUCKLEY HEADKICK KNOCKOUT PUTS FIALHO OUT #UFCVegas73 https://t.co/Vqr0HINsoJ

— Spinnin Backfist (@SpinninBackfist) May 20, 2023

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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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