Joaquin Buckley will look to keep his momentum rolling when he makes another quick turnaround.
MMA Junkie has learned that 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.
Italy’s Di Chirico will look to snap a three-fight losing skid, in which he most recently dropped a unanimous decision to Zak Cummings at UFC Fight Night 175 in August. Prior to the current slide, Di Chirico scored back-to-back wins over Oluwale Bamgbose and Julian Marquez.
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
