Buckley and Alhassan are entering the fight off of knockouts.
Bet on a knockout in this one.
A fight between middleweight finishers Joaquin Buckley and Abdul Razak Alhassan has been set for an upcoming UFC event on Jan. 15 that is expected to take place at the UFC APEX in Las Vegas. Meni Mayer of MMA Ideas on Instagram reported the booking on Tuesday.
Buckley rebounded from a first-round knockout loss to Alessio Di Chirico with a ‘Performance of the Night’ awarded third-round knockout of Antônio Arroyo at UFC Fight Night: Smith vs. Spann this past September. Prior to that, ‘New Mansa’ also earned highlight-reel finishes over Impa Kasanganay and Jordan Wright at UFC Fight Night: Moraes vs. Sandhagen and UFC 255 respectively. The Kasanganay knockout went viral, and was hailed as one of the greatest knockouts in UFC history.
Alhassan snapped a three-fight losing streak and returned to the win column with a 17-second head kick knockout of the previously mentioned Di Chirico at UFC on ESPN: Barboza vs. Chikadze in August. The win over Di Chirico was his fifth first-round stoppage since joining the UFC roster nearly five years ago.
The UFC event Buckley vs. Alhassan has been added to is expected to be headlined by a pivotal featherweight fight between Giga Chikadze and Calvin Kattar.