Joaquin Buckley eyes rematch with Kevin Holland in UFC Fight Night headliner

LAS VEGAS – After arguably his best-career performance, Joaquin Buckley wants to run things back with Kevin Holland.

Buckley (17-6 MMA, 7-4 UFC) picked up a dominant decision win over Alex Morono (23-9 MMA, 12-6 UFC) in this past Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 229 main card – his second straight victory since returning to welterweight.

Buckley made his UFC debut on short notice against Holland (25-10 MMA, 12-7 UFC) in August 2020, just one week after emerging victorious at LFA 87. He lost the fight by second-round TKO, and would love to get a chance to rematch Holland.

“I think that would be big,” Buckley told MMA Junkie and other reporters at a post-fight news conference. “We’re always going back-and-forth, and it’s a friendly competition at the end of the day. I like Kevin Holland’s personality, I like what he does in the octagon to promote himself, and if I’m able to get that win, it’s just going to show everybody that I have improved in this company.”

Most of Buckley’s wins have come by knockout. While he would have loved to put Morono away, he was happy to display the cardio to go three hard rounds, and is confident he could even go the championship rounds with that pace.

“That was the plan from the beginning, to show everybody that my conditioning, the hard work, has really pushed me to another level – definitely when it comes to my conditioning,” Buckley said. “I still want to finish these fights, but it is what it is. I’ve got to show the world we’re conditioned and if we’re going to the fourth and the fifth, it would probably be difficult for somebody to survive that.”