UFC middleweight Joaquin Buckley stole the show on ‘Fight Island’ this past weekend. Unless you’ve been living under a rock you will have already seen Buckley scored one of the greatest MMA knockouts of all time against Impa Kasanganay on the UFC Fight Island 5 undercard.
Buckley was making just his second appearance for the UFC after previously suffering a third-round stoppage defeat to Kevin Holland in his debut. An underdog in this fight against the previously unbeaten Kasanganay – he started well. In the second-round things managed to get astronomically better. Buckley threw a high kick that was caught by his opponent. He then used that as momentum to throw and land the most perfect spinning back kick you’ll ever see – check it out here.
The KO went viral and broke pretty much every UFC social media record going. UFC president Dana White felt compelled to congratulate his fighter in person, he said.
“So I always talk about, when you’re on a card, right, ‘How do you stand out?’… Everybody’s saying ‘just give him $200,000 tonight. Give him every bonus!’ Nobody’s ever seen anything like that. Sean Shelby texted me and said, ‘Write him a check right now for 50 grand and go give it to him before he gets out of the octagon.’” (Transcribed by MMA Fighting)
Buckley was clearly excited to be speaking with his boss, he had quite the reaction to meeting White – check it out below.
Do you think Joaquin Buckley scored the best KO ever at UFC Fight Island 5?