Joaquin Buckley announces UFC hiatus for move to welterweight
After recent setbacks at middleweight, popular UFC athlete Joaquin Buckley now has his eyes set on the 170 lbs division. However, it looks like 'New Mansa' might be taking a short hiatus from the sport before stepping into the octagon as a welterweight.
In a recent Tweet, MMA reporter Alex Behunin revealed that Buckley was going to take four to five months to cut to 170 lbs:
"Joaquin Buckley just said on his IG live that he is taking 4-5 months to make the move to welterweight."
Joaquin Buckley just said on his IG live that he is taking 4-5 months to make the move to welterweight
In an Instagram post last week, Buckley reiterated his plans to drop down a weight class. The American is currently 15-6 as a mixed martial artist.
Although the 28-year-old has enjoyed sporadic bursts of success at 185 lbs and once even held a three-fight win streak in the division, his fortunes have since turned sour as he is currently on a two-fight skid. In his most recent fight at UFC 282, 'New Mansa' suffered a brutal second-round KO loss against No.14-ranked contender Chris Curtis.
Buckley considers welterweight to be his natural weight class, which is not at all surprising since the fighter sated his MMA journey as a welterweight and only moved up to 180 lbs after his 10th pro bout.
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When Joaquin Buckley detailed how to beat Israel Adesanya
Joaquin Buckley believes that high-pressure and high-paced fighting coupled with wrestling is the blueprint for victory against former middleweight champion Israel Adesanya.
During the 132nd MMA show edition of The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, 'New Mansa' explained to Joe Rogan that Kelvin Gastelum's high-pressure approach had a large degree of success against 'The Last Stylebender' when the duo fought.
Buckley suggested that if he was given the opportunity, he could do a better job than Kelvin Gastelum did against the Kiwi:
"If you fight Izzy [Israel Adesanya] you've got to put that pressure on him like Kelvin Gastelum did, right?... but you have never seen him fight that type of fighter again. Where in Kelvin Gastelm has been the southpaw, the shorter fighter, [the] inside fighter; as in putting pressure on him... And I feel like my footwork is a bit better than Kelvin Gastelum's as well. So I wouldn't just be going straight in, I will hit different angles on Izzy. That's how you beat Izzy... and the guess what? Mixing in the takedowns, you know."
Watch Joaquin Buckley detail the blueprint to triumph over Israel Adesanya below:
Watch the full JRE episode below: