Fast facts
- Division: Welterweight (UFC)
- Record: 21-8
- Nationality: American
- Team/gym: Murcielago MMA
- Notable wins: Stephen Thompson (KO, Round 3, UFC 307), Colby Covington (TKO, Round 3, UFC on ESPN 63), Vicente Luque (TKO, Round 2, UFC on ESPN 54), Impa Kasanganay (KO, Round 2, UFC Fight Night 179)
The house Joaquin Buckley grew up in belonged to his grandmother. He and his mother lived there for most of his childhood in St. Louis, and when he was in the sixth grade his mother died from a heart condition. That’s about as much as the public record holds about those years, and it’s enough. The next thing we know is that he found a wrestling room at Marquette High School, and that somewhere on that mat he started paying attention to mixed martial arts. He began training in it after he graduated.
He turned pro in 2014 and did the regional grind the long way, fighting for Shamrock FC, Bellator and Legacy Fighting Alliance on his way to a 10-2 record. One of those two losses came at Bellator 197 on April 13, 2018, when Logan Storley beat him on all three scorecards. Buckley kept going. Two straight TKO wins in LFA got him the UFC call, and the timing tells you everything about how badly he wanted it: he made his debut against Kevin Holland on Aug. 8, 2020, at UFC Fight Night 174, one week after winning in LFA. Holland stopped him in the third round.
The kick
Two months later he was booked against Abu Azaitar at middleweight. Azaitar pulled out and Impa Kasanganay stepped in at UFC Fight Night 179 on Oct. 11, 2020. In the second round Buckley threw a left kick to the body, and Kasanganay caught the foot. Most fighters in that spot are thinking about getting their leg back. Buckley pushed off the trapped leg, spun and landed a back kick to the head that put Kasanganay out cold.
The numbers that followed are absurd. The UFC’s tweet of the finish became the most-liked (359,000), most-retweeted (143,000) and most-viewed (12.8 million) in the promotion’s history. On Instagram it passed 17.8 million views, the UFC’s most-watched video on the platform. Counting every post across X, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, the clip pulled more than 65 million views. Kanye West used the footage to promote a new song. Buckley collected Performance of the Night and swept 2020 Knockout of the Year from basically every outlet that hands one out, plus the UFC’s own President’s Choice Performance of the Year.
This is the part where a lot of careers get swallowed whole. One clip, one nickname, a fan base that wants the same miracle every Saturday. Buckley did knock out Jordan Wright in the second round at UFC 255 that November for another bonus. Then on Jan. 16, 2021, Alessio Di Chirico head-kicked him unconscious in the first round. Three months removed from the most famous kick in UFC history, he was on the wrong end of one.
The middle years
What came next was less shareable and more interesting. He knocked out Antônio Arroyo in the third round in September 2021 for a third Performance of the Night. He took a split decision over Abdul Razak Alhassan that the media scored as a coin flip (seven pundits for Buckley, eight for Alhassan, one draw). He beat Albert Duraev when the doctor stopped it before the third round because Duraev’s eye had swollen shut, and that was bonus number four.
Then 2022 closed badly. Nassourdine Imavov beat him by unanimous decision in September, and Chris Curtis stopped him in the second round at UFC 282 in December. That’s two straight losses for a fighter whose most famous moment was already two years old, which is usually the point where people start calling someone a highlight reel and moving on.
The climb
Here is the stretch I’d hand to anyone who still thinks of Buckley as a clip. Over the next 19 months he went to war and won six in a row, against opponents who kept getting harder.
He stopped André Fialho in the second round in May 2023. He outpointed Alex Morono that October. On March 30, 2024, he replaced an injured Sean Brady against Vicente Luque and finished Luque in the second round. Six weeks later he beat Nursulton Ruziboev on the cards. At UFC 307 on Oct. 5, 2024, he knocked out former title challenger Stephen Thompson in the third round, his fifth Performance of the Night. Two months after that, Ian Machado Garry was pulled to face Shavkat Rakhmonov, former interim champion Colby Covington took the slot, and Buckley won when the doctor stopped it in the third round over a cut above Covington’s eye.
Combat Press and MMA Junkie both named him 2024 Breakout Fighter of the Year. UFC.com ranked him ninth on its Fighter of the Year list. I usually roll my eyes at the word breakout for a guy with this many fights, but the label fit the year. He had become a different fighter from the one who got starched by Di Chirico, and two of those six wins came on short notice against names other people were supposed to fight.
Where he stands
The two losses since have come against two of the best wrestlers the division has. Kamaru Usman, the former champion, beat him by unanimous decision in a main event on June 14, 2025, and the fight earned Fight of the Night. The Brady bout, originally set to headline UFC Fight Night 274 on April 25, 2026, moved to UFC 328 on May 9 for reasons that were never disclosed. Brady won a unanimous decision. There’s a symmetry there that Buckley probably doesn’t enjoy: the man whose injury opened the door to the Luque fight is the one who closed his most recent chance to climb.
In the middle of all this he went back to the mat. He made his Real American Freestyle debut at RAF 03 on Nov. 29, 2025, and lost to Pat Downey. At RAF 12 on Aug. 22, 2026, he lost a decision to Tyron Woodley in a match that won Match of the Night. A kid who started on a high school wrestling mat, losing in pure wrestling to people who have done it their whole lives, between UFC fights against elite wrestlers. My read is that this looks less like a sideshow than homework done in public.
The rankings disagree about how much the last year cost him. The Meta UFC welterweight rankings had him at No. 8 as of Sept. 19, according to his Wikipedia page. Combat Press moved him up from No. 9 to No. 8 in its October list, only because Rakhmonov was removed for inactivity. Knockout Daily’s Cagefile data has him at No. 15. At 32 years old (he turned 32 on April 27), with a 21-8 record, he sits in the band of the division where one result decides which of those numbers sticks.
The next result comes Oct. 17, when he headlines UFC Fight Night 291 against Mike Malott. The UFC has already posted a full fight marathon of both men on YouTube. The last time Buckley was here, two losses deep with people writing him off, he answered with six straight wins.
