Joaquin Buckley and Alessio Di Chirico face off on Saturday at UFC Fight Island 7 in a middleweight battle in the main card at the Flash Forum at Yas Island.
Joaquin “ New Mansa” Buckley comes into the fight with a 12-3 and has won 2 fights in a row. Buckley’s last fight came against Jordan Wright in November of 2020 and it was early in the second round he was able to win the fight by knockout. Buckley outstruck his opponent 43-18 in that last fight. Buckley is averaging 4.89 significant strikes per minute while absorbing 5.46 significant strikes per minute. Buckley usually wants to keep the fight on the feet but he is averaging 0.66 takedowns every 15 minutes but he is only successful on 16 percent of his attempts. Buckley is also stopping 100 percent of his opponents' takedown attempts. In this fight, Buckley needs to use his power and to try and finish the fight.
On the other side of this fight is Alessio “ Manzo” Di Chirico comes into the fight with a 12-5 overall but he has lost 2 fights in a row. Di Chirico’s last fight came against Zak Cummings in August of 2020 and it didn’t go well. In that fight he was competitive but he was knocked down once and that seemed to be the difference as he was defeated. Di Chirico is averaging 3.25 significant strikes per minute while absorbing 3.28 significant strikes per minute. Di Chirico likes to get the fight to the ground and is averaging 1.66 takedowns every 15 minutes and he is successful on 45 percent of his attempts. Di Chirico is also stopping 83 percent of his opponent's takedown attempts.
Buckley has all kinds of power in his hands and he is going to have no issue getting the job done in this fight. Look for Buckley to wear De Chirico early and it won’t take long for this fight to finish. Back Buckley to win this fight by finish.
AUTHOR: Shane Mickle
