Knocking out Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson was no simple job for Joaquin Buckley.
Simply a few months in the past, ‘New Mansa’ scored the largest win of his profession, KOing Thompson within the third spherical of their entertaining scrap at UFC 307 in Salt Lake Metropolis.
“We needed to get ‘Wonderboy’ out of there,” Buckley advised The MMA Guru whereas trying again on his newest victory. “He’s an OG, proper? With the ‘Wonderboy’ struggle, everyone loves ‘Wonderboy’ they usually have been excited for him to come back again. They thought he’d have a simple time with me, particularly if we stayed standing. However that is combined martial arts, so you’re taking the struggle wherever you should. I switched it up, used my wrestling, backed him up towards the cage, and we have been in a position to transition and discover the knockout.
“It’s not simple to knock out ‘Wonderboy.’ The final individual to do it was Anthony Pettis, and he was getting whooped the entire struggle earlier than he got here off the cage with some ‘Showtime’ stuff. However I really feel like I systematically beat ‘Wonderboy’ to get that knockout, and that was the distinction.”
Joaquin Buckley gunning for the fifteenth kO of his profession at UFC Tampa
On Saturday evening, Buckley returns to the Octagon to headline the promotion’s closing occasion of 2024, UFC Tampa. There, he’ll look to land one other highlight-reel end towards one other fighter who has confirmed tough to place away inside the space — Colby Covington.
Making his first look since a lackluster loss towards Leon Edwards round this identical time final 12 months, Covington has solely been stopped twice in his combined martial arts profession, each coming beneath the UFC banner. The final time was 5 years in the past when ‘Chaos’ got here up brief towards then-welterweight titleholder Kamaru Usman of their inaugural title tilt.
Covington went the space with Usman two years later however nonetheless got here up brief on the scorecards.
