Joaquin Buckley | Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
On a night filled with spectacular finishes, Joaquin Buckley stood above the rest.
To the surprise of nobody, Buckley’s once-in-a-lifetime jumping spin kick KO of Impa Kasanganay earned him one of four $50,000 UFC Fight Island 5 Performance of the Night bonuses.
The finish, which instantly went viral, emerged as a frontrunner for the best knockout of 2020.
On any other evening, Cory Sandhagen’s win over Marlon Moraes would surely have been the talk of the show. Sandhagen dropped Moraes with a spinning heel kick to the top of the head to put “Magic” away in the second round of Saturday’s main event.
The other two Performance of the Night bonuses went to a pair of quick finishes. Heavyweight Chris Daukaus earned his first UFC bonus with a 45-second TKO of Rodrigo Nascimento, and middleweight veteran Tom Breese earned his third UFC bonus by finishing newcomer KB Bhullar 1:42 into round one.
In lieu of four Performance of the Night bonuses being awarded, there was no Fight of the Night.