Popular UFC fighter Joaquin Buckley now has his sights set on the 170 lbs class after recent defeats at middleweight. But it appears like “New Mansa” will take a brief break from fighting before switching to the welterweight division.
MMA writer Alex Behunin recently tweeted that it would take Buckley four to five months to lose weight and reach 170 pounds:
Last week, Buckley confirmed his intention to downgrade his weight class in an Instagram post. As of right now, the American is 15-6 in mixed martial arts.
The 28-year-old has experienced brief spurts of success at 185 pounds, and he even previously had a three-fight winning streak in the category, but his luck has since soured as he is presently on a two-fight losing streak. ‘New Mansa’ lost his most recent bout at UFC 282 by brutal second-round KO to No. 14-ranked contender Chris Curtis.
As a welterweight who finished his MMA career at that weight and only stepped up to 180 pounds after his tenth professional fight, Buckley views welterweight as his natural weight division.
When Joaquin Buckley detailed how to beat Israel Adesanya
Joaquin Buckley thinks the key to beating former middleweight champion Israel Adesanya is high-pressure, fast-paced fighting combined with wrestling.
In the 132nd MMA show episode of The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, “New Mansa” told Joe Rogan that Kelvin Gastelum’s high-pressure strategy against “The Last Stylebender” in their fight was largely successful.
If given the chance, Buckley claimed, he might do better against the Kiwi than Kelvin Gastelum did:
“You must apply the same pressure to Izzy [Israel Adesanya] that Kelvin Gastelum did if you want to win the battle. But you’ve never seen him take on that kind of opponent again. Whereas Kelvin Gastelm has traditionally been the insider, the shorter fighter, and the southpaw, applying pressure to him… Additionally, I believe that my footwork is a little bit superior to Kelvin Gastelum’s. So instead of just charging in straight, I’ll attack Izzy from a variety of angles. Izzy may be defeated in this manner, and guess what? You know, mixing in the takedowns.”
