Joaquin Buckley put on a show for his hometown crowd with an exhilarating win over Nursulton Ruziboev in the UFC St. Louis co-main event.
Nothing exactly came easy but Buckley displayed powerful takedowns, vicious ground and pound and simply outworked Ruziboev round after round to earn the victory. When it was over, the judges scored the contest 30-27, 30-27 and 29-27 for Buckley, who scores his fourth straight victory since returning to the welterweight division.
“We just showed up and showed out!” Buckley shouted to the raucous crowd. “This is our moment, this is our win. I don’t know if I just made it look easy but we definitely had to work for that win.”
A jumping knee strike from Ruziboev was countered with a well-timed takedown as Buckley planted him on the canvas, which negated the significant height advantage from the Uzbekistan native. Ruzuboev worked his way back to the feet and immediately wobbled Buckley with a huge shot, which led to another massive takedown as the welterweights continued to hammer away at each other.
Ruziboev continued to set up his counters just waiting for Buckley to come after him so he could unleash his powerful right hand. That led to another takedown from Buckley but once again, he couldn’t keep Ruziboev locked underneath him.
Back on the feet, Ruziboev did a good job controlling the distance but he kept loading up with the same right hand, which negated any real danger for Buckley so long as he stayed away from that punch.
Buckley finally turned to tables on the feet after he uncorked a huge three-punch combination that sent Ruziboev down to the canvas. Buckley followed him to the ground where he tried to get the finish but Ruziboev was able to survive the barrage.
Another wild exchange saw Ruziboev fall down again but this time Buckley jumped into the mount where he began raining down some vicious shots. Buckley was hammering away with punches and elbows but a failed triangle attempt saw Ruziboev actually earn the reversal.
It was momentary success as another scramble led to Buckley regaining the dominant position and once again, he was unleashing hell with his punches in a last second attempt to end the fight. Ruziboev survived to the final horn but Buckley clearly did more than enough to get the win.
After admitting that he kind of blew his opportunity to call out a name following his previous victory, Buckley definitely had a name in mind this time around, although it’s tough to imagine he’ll get to call his shot for a future fight.
“Who do I want next?” Buckley said. “He’s got a fight already booked up, there’s only one name you should call out – that name is Conor McGregor. I want you. You fighting a lightweight midget. Come at me, bro.”
