Joaquin Buckley booked for UFC St. Louis co-main event against streaking welterweight contender

UFC president Dana White has granted welterweight contender Joaquin Buckley’s wish to compete in his hometown next month.

White announced on Wednesday that Buckley will face 6’5″ welterweight Nursulton Ruziboev in the UFC St. Louis co-main event on May 11th. At the UFC 300 pre-fight press conference, Buckley hijacked the microphone to implore White to give him a main event slot in St. Louis.

While Buckley won’t headline the card, he’ll appear in the co-main event slot in front of his hometown crowd at the Enterprise Center. The card is headlined by a heavyweight matchup between Derrick Lewis and Rodrigo Nascimento.

Buckley will look to win his fourth straight welterweight fight after a trio of impressive wins inside the Octagon. He most recently finished Vicente Luque in the UFC Atlantic City co-main event on March 30.

Buckley has been a wrecking ball since making the full-time move to welterweight. He knocked out Andre Fialho with a head kick last May before earning a unanimous decision win over Alex Morono.

Joaquin Buckley vs. Nursulton Ruziboev added to UFC St. Louis

Buckley will face the behemoth Ruziboev for his next welterweight test. Unbeaten in the UFC Octagon, Ruziboev has competed at middleweight for the majority of his career and hasn’t fought at 170lbs since Jan. 2021.

Before signing with the UFC, Ruziboev captured the Andijan Mayor Cup welterweight championship by defeating Maxim Soroka with a first-round kimura. After stints in WEF and Open FC, Ruziboev made his UFC debut last July, knocking out Brunno Ferreira in the first round.

Ruziboev’s pre-fight battle on the weight scales will be a hot-button topic of UFC St. Louis fight week. But, the impressive prospect has won 10 consecutive fights and has an extremely aggressive style.

The May 11th UFC Fight Night event is the first card in St. Louis since 2018.