On a night filled with remarkable individual efforts, Joaquin Buckley stood tallest at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Fla., on Saturday. He took the next step toward greatness with a third-round stoppage of former interim welterweight champion Colby Covington. Buckley cut Covington with a short right hand early in their fight and looked every bit the part of a welterweight championship contender while delivering a one-sided beatdown.
The end came at 4:42 of the third round when referee Dan Miragliotta halted the action to have the ringside physician look at Covington's mangled right eye. She determined Covington could not go on and that decision handed Buckley the biggest win of his career.
He ended 2024 with a 4-0 record with three KOs and thrust himself into the Fighter of the Year race. No, he won't win that, not with what featherweight champion Ilia Topuria and light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira have done, but Buckley came out of nowhere to be one of the year's best fighters.
He knocked out Vicente Luque in March. In his first main event in May, he won a decision over Nursulton Ruziboev. He knocked out Stephen "Wonderboy" Thompson on Oct. 5 at UFC 307 and then mauled Covington on Saturday.
Buckley defended seven of eight Covington takedown attempts, and he even had Covington caught in a triangle choke at one point in the third round. Covington, who walked to the Octagon with former WWE champion Hulk Hogan and ripped his jersey off a la Hogan before entering the cage, never quit but he was physically overmatched on Saturday.
Buckley landed 75 of 151 significant strikes, compared to 37 of 124. The difference is that most of Buckley's 75 were powerful, crunching shots while Covington's were taps as he was trying to create distance and get away from Buckley.
"I know we spilled a little blood, but ya'll wanted to see a knockout," Buckley said. "So, my bad."
Buckley stood out on a night of brilliant individual performances. Cub Swanson, the 41-year-old Hall of Famer, knocked out Billy Quarantillo with a crushing left hook and perfect right cross, and said he isn't sure if he's done yet.
Manel Kape, despite an eye poke and three low blows, dominated Bruno Silva and positioned himself for a flyweight title shot in a third-round finish in their battle. Dustin Jacoby might have had the best single punch of the fight when a right cross put out Vitor Petrino at 3:44 of Round 3 of their light heavyweight match.
Veteran Michael Johnson had a vicious KO of Ottman Azaitar. Joel Alvarez KO'd Drakkar Klose with a brutal knee and Sean Woodson landed a beautiful uppercut as part of a combination that stopped Fernando Padilla.
All were wow moments, but no one fought more impressively from start to finish than Buckley. After it was over, he asked the crowd who it wanted him to fight and he put out three names. There was next-to-no noise for former welterweight champion Leon Edwards. Another ex-champion, Kamaru Usman, seemed to generate some interest, as did champion Belal Muhammad.
Muhammad, though, is going to defend next against Shavkat Rakhmonov, so Buckley versus Usman may be next.
"You go in and beat Colby Covington, it's a big deal," UFC CEO/President Dana White said. "Love him or hate him, the guy's a dog. He's f*cking tough as nails. He took big shots to the body tonight. He took big shots to the head that would have knocked a lot of people out. Colby's durable and tough, but when you get cut, anything could happen. ... Colby's tough, but I also feel that Colby wasn't too pissed the fight got stopped by that cut."
Buckley entered the bout ranked No. 9 at welterweight and figures to move up to at least No. 6. He's now won six in a row and nine of his last 11.
The gate was $3 million, setting a company record for largest gate at a North American fight night show.