Preview: UFC on ESPN 56 ‘Lewis vs. Nascimento’

Welterweights

#11 WW | Joaquin Buckley (18-6, 8-4 UFC) vs. Nursulton Ruziboev (34-8-2, 2-0 UFC)

ODDS: Buckley (-166), Ruziboev (+140)

Buckley, a St. Louis native, has been stumping for a spot on this card since his March win over Vicente Luque, and “New Mansa” gets his wish with this short-notice addition. Buckley caught lightning in a bottle back in 2020, when he went viral with one of the best highlight finishes in UFC history, knocking out Impa Kasanganay with a jumping spinning back kick. Between Buckley’s willingness to fight as often as possible and the UFC looking to strike while the iron was hot, he looked like a potential star, as he kept taking quick turnaround fights. Then he ran into a head kick knockout from Alessio Di Chirico to kick off 2021, which seemed to kill all of that momentum. Buckley’s always shown an impressive combination of power and cardio, but his approach has also had a clear ceiling. No matter the preferred attack, Buckley has tended to blitz his opponents while leaving himself defensively open, allowing them to eventually time his offense and hit him hard. After a 2022 loss to Chris Curtis that followed that script, Buckley announced a cut down to welterweight come 2023, which has seemingly unlocked another level. Buckley’s carried all his power down a division, making his issues a non-factor as he has worn down Andre Fialho, Alex Morono and Vicente Luque, finishing Fialho and Luque.

Uzbekistan’s Ruziboev steps in to take on Buckley on the same short turnaround—he fought on the same March card—and while he’s probably the lowest-wattage opponent yet for the Murcielago MMA rep at welterweight, he’s still a fascinating challenge. This marks Ruziboev’s first UFC fight at welterweight, though he’s fought at 170 pounds on the regional scene, and it’ll be impressive to see him make that limit, given that he was already a massive middleweight at 6-foot-5. Ruziboev’s regional career was hard to parse. He had over 40 fights to his name, but a ton of them came against a particularly weak level of competition that Ruziboev was able to overwhelm with his size and a few dangerous techniques. Two fights into his UFC career, being massive and dangerous has still been enough. Brunno Ferreira was defensively flammable and Sedriques Dumas was rather aimless, and Ruziboev was able to knock each of them out in short order. Given that there’s always the chance that Buckley charges right into something hard, this is a sneakily dangerous matchup for the hometown fighter. However, at a certain point, it’s hard to favor Ruziboev when he’s so unproven against solid competition. The pick is Buckley via second-round stoppage.

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Lewis vs. Nascimento
Buckley vs. Ruziboev
Ulberg vs. Menifield
Rebecki vs. Ferreira
Woodson vs. Caceres
Despaigne vs. Cortes-Acosta
The Prelims