Joaquin Buckley issues statement following head kick KO loss to Alessio Di Chirico

UFC middleweight Joaquin Buckley issued a statement following his head kick KO loss to Alessio Di Chirico at UFC on ABC 1.

Buckley was recently named by UFC president Dana White as one of the three fighters to look forward to in 2021, alongside Kevin Holland and Khamzat Chimaev. After scoring back-to-back knockout wins over Impa Kasanganay and Jordan Wright, Buckley was booked to fight Di Chirico in a fight that many were looking at as a squash match. Indeed, the oddsmakers opened Buckley up as a sizeable favorite to beat Chirico, who had lost three straight fights.

But MMA is such an unpredictable sport, and we saw that on Saturday at UFC on ABC 1, when Buckley lost in brutal fashion when Di Chirico caught him with a high kick in the first round and put him out cold. Three months ago, Buckley’s KO over Kasanganay went viral. This time around, he was the one on the wrong end of the blow when he got knocked out. Taking to his social media following the head kick loss, Buckley issued a statement on Instagram.

Just Wasn’t My Time All Praises To God @alessiodichirico Enjoy Your Win God Has Blessed You We Showed Up And Out No Matter What W/L I Always Promise A Finish

This loss to Di Chirico is no doubt a huge setback for Buckley, who was looking like a future superstar after the highlight-reel knockouts he scored over Kasanaganay and Wright. Now, he drops to 2-2 in the UFC and is essentially lost in the shuffle in the stacked UFC middleweight division. The good news for Buckley is that he’s still on the right side of 30 at age 26, so he has plenty of time to turn things around once he recovers from the Di Chirico head kick KO.

Where do you think Joaquin Buckley goes from here after losing by head kick KO to Alessio Di Chirico at UFC on ABC 1?