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