Joaquin Buckley vs. Jordan Wright Booked For UFC 255
Since witnessing the greatest knockout in UFC history just five days ago, UFC Fight Island 5 star Joaquin Buckley already has his next fight lined up, and it’s a very intriguing one. That fight is against fellow middleweight prospect Jordan Wright.
Both of these men are great strikers, and both are finishers. The 29-year-old California native Jordan Wright just made his UFC debut on August 22, where he picked up a 91 second TKO victory over Ike Villanueva.
The 26-year-old Missouri native Joaquin Buckley made his promotional debut on August 8 against Kevin Holland.
Though Buckley put up a good fight, he was ultimately TKO’d early in round three with a beautiful stinging right cross by Holland. We saw right away that Buckley isn’t afraid to bring it, and he has some good boxing with absolutely wicked power.
In Buckley’s fight on Saturday with Impa Kasanganay, man what a fight this was! Buckley had Kasanganay hurt early on, but was unable to get the finish just then. Buckley ended up tying up with Kasanganay, and secured an inside trip midway through round one.
We were already seeing more from Buckley than we did in his first fight. Kasanganay made his way back to his feet, and the two continued throwing heavy leather until the end of round one.
About two minutes into round two is where the greatest knockout in UFC history happened, as Buckley threw a round kick to Kasanganay’s body, which was caught.
Buckley however spinned his body and brought his rear foot up to Kasanganay’s face, resulting in an absolutely vicious KO.
In short, it was a jumping spinning back kick to the face. Kasanganay caught one of Buckley’s round kicks in round one as well, but Buckley had the perfect counter locked and ready for when Kasanganay caught it again.
Now Buckley gears up to face Wright in an epic battle of the strikers. Wright showed a perfectly performed Thai clinch in his debut, where he landed some ruthless knees to Villanueva’s face, resulting in a massive cut, forcing the referee to stop the fight.
It’s not often we see fighters use a solid Thai clinch, and Wright also has some wicked spin attacks of his own, which he opened up his Villanueva fight with.
Eight of Buckley’s eleven wins come via knockout, with the other three being decisions, and all eleven of Wright’s wins come via stoppage with six knockouts and five submissions, only one of which went past round one.
This is going to be a great fight! Who takes it?
