Joaquin Buckley made essentially the most out of his second at UFC 307.
The at all times outspoken welterweight contender took care of enterprise within the octagon after he delivered a vicious one-punch knockout on Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson halfway by the third spherical. It was a surprising end after Buckley had struggled on the ft towards the artful Thompson, but it surely solely took one large shot to vary all the things.
The tip got here at 2:17 within the third spherical and following his newest win, Buckley then turned his consideration to a former welterweight champion who nonetheless wants a battle proper now.
“We simply blocking out the noise, all of the distractions and going to work,” Buckley mentioned after his win. “We coming for that throne. I really feel like I have to battle yet another earlier than I battle for the belt. I really like Belal [Muhammad], I’m going to allow you to deal with that with Shavkat [Rakhmonov]
“[Kamaru] Usman get your ass out right here within the octagon. Everyone needs to see that battle. Let’s go. I’m going to place my 5-0 report towards your [three straight losses] and let’s get it. Let’s see who’s going to win.”
After he was criticized for calling out Conor McGregor following his earlier win, Buckley acquired an entire lot of reward asking for this matchup with Usman out of motion since October 2023 and trying to get again into title competition.
As for the battle itself, it took lower than 30 seconds for Buckley to swoop inside and seize a takedown to place Thompson on the canvas. The sport plan didn’t shock Thompson, who shortly scrambled to get again to his ft however he was nonetheless coping with a number of ahead stress from Buckley.
As Buckley continued to hurry ahead, Thompson acted like a sniper from the skin with a proper hand that began connecting in virtually each alternate. Thompson’s counter putting was giving Buckley every kind of issues each time he moved ahead with out really setting something up.
Buckley’s finest success got here from making the battle ugly when he bought in Thompson’s face, threw punches in bunches after which appeared for a takedown. Even when he bought the battle right down to the canvas, Buckley simply couldn’t maintain Thompson down because the two-time welterweight title challenger constantly broke free to return to his ft.
With 5 minutes remaining, Buckley began launching bombs simply making an attempt to overwhelm Thompson, however the veteran striker prevented taking an excessive amount of injury. However Buckley acknowledged the place he was discovering his opening so he simply threw technical putting out the door and went headhunting.
That’s when Buckley rushed forward and uncorked the hellacious proper hand that blasted Thompson and despatched him crumbling to the canvas. The referee instantly swooped in to cease the battle with Thompson wobbled badly as he tried to get again to his ft.
It was an ultra-impressive displaying for Buckley, who received his fifth straight battle since shifting to welterweight. Maybe Usman finally ends up as his subsequent take a look at with Buckley trying to put himself into title competition sooner slightly than later.