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It’s tough for Dan Hardy to call Joaquin Buckley’s KO the UFC’s greatest, but ‘it’s certainly up there’

ABU DHABI – Ever since Joaquin Buckley’s viral spinning back kick knockout at UFC on ESPN+ 37, the debate has raged on: Was it the greatest KO in UFC history?

Perhaps someone best qualified to answer that question is former UFC welterweight Dan Hardy. Not only has he trained at the highest level and competed for a UFC title, but Hardy now studies fight film religiously to prepare himself as a cageside commentator and analyst.

So what does he think of Buckley’s dazzling finish of Impa Kasanganay being considered the GOAT of UFC knockouts?

“It’s certainly up there,” Hardy told reporters, including MMA Junkie, on Tuesday. “The thing I struggle with is picking knockouts apart between the ones that were planned before they got in the octagon and the ones that were circumstantial when they were in there.”

Buckley’s knockout happened after Kasanganay caught a high kick and held on to his foot, which allowed Buckley to spin mid-air and land a picture-perfect kick to the face. When re-watching the fight, Hardy appreciates the detail of Buckley taking note that his kick had been caught twice in Round 1 before the second-round stoppage.

“Buckley acknowledged it but wasn’t able to return with it,” Hardy said. “The second round, when he came out and Kasanganay got a better grip on the ankle, that was when he made the adjustment. It was just a beautiful knockout.”

But as for it being the greatest in UFC history, there’s a hang-up for Hardy, who said he also appreciates knockouts that are pre-planned. His two biggest examples? Jorge Masvidal’s five-second flying knee finish of Ben Askren at UFC 239 and Conor McGregor’s 13-second knockout of Jose Aldo at UFC 194.

“The one that people keep firing out there is Masvidal against Askren. The best thing about that is he knew exactly what he was doing when he got in there, same with McGregor and Aldo,” Hardy said. “That was a planned setup to finish. And when they are able to do it so quickly, that’s very, very special. That requires someone to research, to understand what their opponent is gonna do, to work on a predictability, and then to make it happen in the fight, which is the most difficult thing to do, especially at that high level. … It’s difficult to overcome those two for me. Certainly for 2020, (Buckley’s) is the knockout of the year.”

Praising the preparation by Masvidal and McGregor isn’t to say Hardy thinks Buckely hit a lucky kick.

“That’s ridiculous. You don’t throw that without meaning to land it,” Hardy said. “… It’s just a beautiful technique, isn’t it? I think we have four back kick knockouts to the head in total in the UFC. To have one when he was mid-air after his foot getting caught, spectacular.”

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