UFC Fight Island 5 was a fun night of fights filled with knockouts, but one man managed to steal the show.
Joaquin Buckley landed a picture-perfect spinning back kick to the face of his opponent Impa Kasanganay in round two of their middleweight match-up. Kasanganay dropped to the floor statuesque and Buckley secured himself a $50,000 in bonus money, a place at the very top of the knockouts of the year list, and a whole load of hype as his viral KO broke pretty much every UFC social media record.
Speaking to Dan Hardy immediately after the fight Buckley explained his thought process in throwing the unorthodox kick.
“I was conscious of it because he caught my foot the first time,” Buckley said. “I was hesitant to throw it then, but the second time was like, why not? When I threw it, I connected, I just didn’t know that I knocked him out until I seen his body go stiff and thought, ‘Oh, yeah. That’s game over.’”
Soon after Buckley was talking to the media at the UFC Fight Island 5 post-fight press conference.
“It’s still surreal right now,” Buckley admitted to reporters in attendance.
“At the end of the day, a lot of people don’t know anything about fighting, and they only follow the person with the most follows,” he added. “I’d rather just stay under the radar and do what I’m doing.” (Transcribed by MMA Fighting)
Buckley was heading into this fight. He had fought just once previously in the UFC, suffering a knockout loss to 185lb prospect Kevin Holland. Prior to his late notice fight against Holland, Buckley had picked up two impressive win under the LFA banner.
Do you think Joaquin Buckley scored the best knockout of all time over Impa Kasanganay at UFC Fight Island 5 on Yas Island?