News Joaquin Buckley vs. Alessio Di Chirico added to UFC Fight Night on Jan. 16

[Gio]

Buckley (12-3 MMA, 2-1 UFC) will face Alessio Di Chirico (12-5 MMA, 3-5 UFC) at UFC Fight Night on Jan. 16, which takes place at Yas Island in Abu Dhabi.



Two people with knowledge of the booking informed MMA Junkie of the plans but requested anonymity as the UFC has yet to make a formal announcement.

After dropping his UFC debut to Kevin Holland on short notice in August, Buckley rebounded with one of the greatest knockouts in UFC history when he scored a spinning back kick finish of Impa Kasanganay at UFC Fight Night 179. He turned right back around just over a month later when he notched his second straight “Performance of the Night” knockout over another formerly unbeaten fighter in Jordan Wright at UFC 255.

With the addition, the Jan. 16 lineup includes:

• Max Holloway vs. Calvin Kattar
• Sara McMann vs. Julianna Pena
• Mike Grundy vs. Nik Lentz
• Brian Kelleher vs. Ricky Simon
• Jacob Kilburn vs. Austin Lingo
• Carlos Felipe vs. Justin Tafa
• Punahele Soriano vs. Dusko Todorovic
• Anthony Hernandez vs. Rodolfo Vieira
• Bethe Correia vs. Wu Yanan
• Christian Aguilera vs. Warlley Alves
• Omari Akhmedov vs. Tom Breese
• Ramazan Emeev vs. David Zawada
• Phil Hawes vs. Nassourdine Imavov
• Joaquin Buckley vs. Alessio Di Chirico

 

[FrappeDuRocma]

Alessio Di Chirico lost his last three fights in UD...

 

[Kyojiro Kagenuma]

Buckleys pretty active.

 

[FrappeDuRocma]

Buckleys pretty active.

He's following his dad's path...

 

[tehMoose]

Bellator guy by KO again

 

[gaffbyknees2]

Lame fight. Ufc matchmaking is trash sometimes.

 

[13Seconds]

Im ok with Buckley fighting scrubs while he's honing his skills.

 

[Zebra Cheeks]

Pretty solid fight night

 

[Bboy]

Guessing this is a case of Buckley wanting a fight and having quick turnaround, and no one wanting to take the fight. Hence the weird matchmaking.

 

[Memeojima]

They gonna keep feeding him scrubs now that he went viral

 

[Prince Nephilim]

Nice gimme fight for Buckley. They giving him that MVP treatment

 

[Miningpieces]

He wants to keep busy man I like his attitude.

 

[Syndrm]

Ponzinibbio vs Li on the card as well, last I knew

Almost 40 fights in 8 days

 

[wufabufa]

Alessio Di Chirico lost his last three fights in UD...

He's boring and fights conservatively but I think this is still a good test for Buckley to see how he does against that style. He might just punch himself out if Alessio can whether the storm.

 

[brackis1]

Guessing this is a case of Buckley wanting a fight and having quick turnaround, and no one wanting to take the fight. Hence the weird matchmaking.

Yeah I'm sure that's it, has nothing to do with the UFC being a crooked stooge org cutting quality fighters under the guise of "too crowded", while bringing back dudes on 3 fight losing streaks to get starched against guys who get a fight every 2 months.

This is clear as day "hey we control this walgreens guy who became a viral star and don't have to pay him as long as we pad his record instead to make complete idiots think he was out chosen prodigal son, not a guy we brought in on short notice to get beat by Kevin Holland"

 

[ignorant MMA fan]

I like that they're overloading this card. With covid, travel restrictions, injury and whatever else in play, it helps provide a full card, not this 9 fight bullshit. At the very least, you can't say they're not trying.

 

[Grapplefest]

Trash matchmaking, they should've done Muradov vs Buckley, that's a banger. Instead they give Muradov Andrew Sanchez on the same card

 

[DevNull69]

• Bethe Correia vs. Wu Yanan

i thought soccer mom retired?

 

[wwkirk]

Muradov Andrew Sanchez on the same card

Where's that announced?

 

[Mohawk Banditó]

I mean, Chirico did have 2 bad decisions against him, including one against Holland he should have won, but he's benefited once from bad judging as well, so he's still like 4-4 in the UFC. They're both far down enough that you can't complain, I guess.

Guessing this is a case of Buckley wanting a fight and having quick turnaround, and no one wanting to take the fight. Hence the weird matchmaking.

Krause wanted the fight, but Buckley's management team said they didn't. This is what they got instead.

I guess they're hoping Buckley succeeds where their last prospect, Bamgbose failed.