Joaquin Buckley will fight Nursulton Ruziboev next in the co-main event of UFC On ESPN 56 in St. Louis on May 11th.
The 29-year-old Buckley has been on a fine run of form since dropping down to welterweight last year, having since gone on a three-fight winning streak.
That run began with a head kick TKO finish of Andre Filho last May, followed by a unanimous decision win over Alex Morono and then most recently a TKO stoppage win over Vicente Luque just last month.
That win helped propel Buckley to No.11 in the welterweight rankings, but he’ll now be going up against an unranked opponent in the 30-year-old Ruziboev, who is dropping down from middleweight.
Ruziboev joined the UFC last year and made an immediate impact at 185lbs, KO’ing Brunno Ferreira in 77 seconds and then also TKO’d Sedriques Dumas in the first round last month, so it’ll be interesting to see how he now fares down a weight class.
Buckley vs. Ruziboev gets the co-main event spot on a UFC On ESPN 56 card that will be headlined by a heavyweight clash between Derrick Lewis and Rodrigo Nascimento, while Alonso Menifield vs. Carlos Ulberg, Terrence McKinney vs. Esteban Ribovics and Alex Caceres vs. Sean Woodson are among the other fights currently confirmed for the show.
