Las Vegas, NV — Despite it being over a year since the knockout heard around the world landed, Joaquin Buckley still isn’t sick of hearing about it.
“Not at all, man. I don’t get sick of it,” Buckley told Cageside Press ahead of this past Friday’s World MMA Awards, where he was nominated for, and won, Knockout of the Year for his two-touch spinning back kick KO of Impa Kasanganay. “I love it when people approach me talking about the knockout, you know, because that’s people celebrating me and just honoring me. It’s a big deal. That kick is definitely going to last for a long time, so I’m just going to have to get used to it.”
Of course, there’s the associated “curse” that goes with what might be the greatest KO in UFC history. After knocking out Kasanganay with a head kick, Buckley himself was knocked out by a head kick, from Alessio Di Chirico. In turn, Di Chirico was then knocked out by, you guessed it, a head kick, care of Abdul Razak Alhassan.
“I don’t see it as no curse. I know exactly what you’re talking about,” Buckley said to that notion. “Me finishing Impa that way, me getting finished by Alessio, and then Alessio getting finished by Alhassan. So let’s see if we can end that curse with me finishing Alhassan, you know what I’m saying?”
“With a head kick,” Buckley added.
As far as Friday’s awards show, “it’s awesome just to be out here, to be celebrated,” Buckley later told us. “For them to call me out and bring me out here is a big deal. So we’re just enjoying every moment.”
Watch our full chat with Joaquin Buckley from the World MMA Awards above.
