While he won’t be in the main event, Joaquin
Buckley will get to fight at UFC St. Louis as he requested.
Dana White on Wednesday announced that Buckley will lock horns with
Nursulton
Ruziboev in a welterweight bout that will serve as the UFC
on ESPN 56 co-headliner on May 11. UFC on ESPN 56 takes place
at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis and will see Derrick
Lewis face Rodrigo
Nascimento in the evening’s main event.
Buckley will take a three-fight winning streak into the matchup
with Ruziboev. In his most recent Octagon appearance, “New Mansa”
defeated Vicente
Luque via second-round TKO at UFC on ESPN 54 on March 30.
Ruziboev, meanwhile, will drop to 170 pounds after scoring
first-round KO/TKO triumphs against Brunno
Ferreira and Sedriques
Dumas in his first two promotional outings at middleweight. The
30-year-old Uzbekistan native has been victorious in his last 10
professional fights, with all of those wins coming inside of a
round.