Joaquin Buckley will return to his original weight class.
Buckley (15-6 MMA, 5-4 UFC) will drop back down to 170 pounds to take on Andre Fialho (16-6 MMA, 2-3 UFC) on May 20 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, promotion officials announced Tuesday.
Buckley announced that he plans on dropping to welterweight after losing to Chris Curtis at UFC 282 this past December, his second consecutive defeat. Prior to that, “New Mansa” scored three straight wins, two by knockout.
Fialho will look to snap a two-fight losing skid. After scoring back-to-back Performance of the Night first-round knockouts of Miguel Baeza and Cameron VanCamp, the Kill Cliff FC fighter was stopped by Jake Matthews and most recently Muslim Salikhov this past November.
The UFC Fight Night lineup for May 20 includes:
- Irene Aldana vs. Raquel Pennington
- Anthony Hernandez vs. Edmen Shahbazyan
- Joaquin Buckley vs. Andre Fialho
- Orion Cosce vs. Gilbert Urbina
- Diego Ferreira vs. Michael Johnson
- Vanessa Demopoulos vs. Karolina Kowalkiewicz
- Abdul Razak Alhassan vs. Brunno Ferreira
- Ilir Latifi vs. Rodrigo Nascimento
- Viacheslav Borshchev vs. Hayisaer Maheshate
- Nick Fiore vs. Chase Hooper
- Victoria Leonardo vs. Natalia Silva
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for the UFC Fight Night event May 20.
