Dana White took to social media today and announced UFC 307 which goes down on October 5th from Salt Lake City, Utah. White announced that Alex Pereira – Khalil Rountree will headline the card with a title fight between Raquel Pennington and Julianna Pena serving as the co-main event.
White also announced a couple of big time fights on the main card including a matchup between two fan-favorites at welterweight. It was announced that former title challenger and 9th ranked contender Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson (17-7-1) will take on “New Mansa” Joaquin Buckley (19-6). Buckley is currently ranked 11th in the division.
Starting with Wonderboy, he’ll be looking to bounce back after his last loss in December. Thompson took on the extremely dangerous Shavkat Rakhmonov and was submitted in the second round. That loss came on the heels of his TKO win over Kevin Holland which took place a year prior. While a title fight might not be in the cards for Wonderboy, he’s still dedicated to putting on fun fights for fans and UFC 307 should be just that.
UFC 307
Joaquin Buckley has really seen his career turn around now that he’s down to 170 pounds. After going 5-4 in nine fights at middleweight, Buckley decided to drop to welterweight. Since making the move, he’s been on a roll winning all four of his fights to get him to 11th in the division.
After stopping Vicente Luque back in March, Buckley hounded Dana White for an opportunity to fight at UFC St. Louis just six weeks later. Buckley wanted to fight in front of his hometown fans more than anything. The promotion gave him a fight against the very dangerous Nursulton Ruziboev and Buckley shined.
Buckley won a decision and now he’s on to facing top ten competition. If he’s able to impressively beat Wonderboy at UFC 307, he might only be a couple of wins away from serious title contention.