A mouth-watering middleweight matchup between revered knockout finishers, Joaquin Buckley, and Abdul Razak Alhassan is slated to land on a UFC Fight Night 200 event on January 15. At the time of publication, the promotion are yet to determine a location or venue for the event.
Returning to the win column following a devastating knockout loss back in January, St. Louis-born upstart, Buckley managed to stop Antonio Arroyo with third round strikes back at UFC Vegas 37 last month. The knockout victory earned Buckley his third Performance of the Night bonus since his UFC tenure began in August of last year.
For Accra, Ghana knockout ace, Alhassan, he stopped common-foe of Buckley, Italian striker, Alessio Di Chirico with a brutal 17-second high-kick knockout back in August at UFC Vegas 35. The stoppage win improved Alhassan to 11-4 as a professional. MMA Ideas first reported the pairing on Instagram.
Buckley, 27, made his Octagon bow back in August of last year — where the LFA and Bellator alum met with middleweight contender, Kevin Holland in his UFC debut. Despite an admirable performance, Buckley was eventually stopped with a third round knockout.
Returning that October at UFC Fight Island 5, the Missouri native lodged a Knockout of the Year and one of the most innovative knockouts in the sport’s history — spinning with a back kick to knock Impa Kasanganay unconscious, in a finish that ultimately went viral. Continuing his decent run, Buckley then finished Jordan Wright at UFC 255 in November.
Renowned knockout artists Joaquin Buckley, Abdul Razak Alhassan book January showdown
Suffering his second UFC defeat, Buckley featured on the UFC on ABC 1 card in January, once more in Abu Dhabi, UAE — where he was finished with a huge high-kick courtesy of the aforenoted, Di Chirico.
A lethal finisher, Alhassan has a staggering 100 percent finish rate throughout his 14-fight career — lodging a stunning 11 separate knockout successes.
Rebounding against Di Chirico, Alhassan had dropped a trio of losses to Jacob Malkoun, Khaos Williams, and Mounir Lazzez in a torrid 2020 for him professionally.
In other UFC victories, Alhassan stopped Sabah Homasi in back-to-back first round knockouts, as well now-Bellator middleweight contender, Charlie Ward, and the always-exciting, Niko Price — all within the opening frame.
UFC Fight Night 200 takes place on January 15. — and while a location or venue has yet to be determined by the organization, a featherweight headliner between the returning New England Cartel standout, Calvin Kattar and Tibilisi striking ace, Giga Chikadze is booked to take main event honors.