JRE MMA Show #132 with Joaquin Buckley

Joe Rogan (0:04)

The Joe Rogan Experience. Mr. Buckley, how are you, sir?

Joaquin Buckley (0:14)

Man, I'm doing good, Joe.

Joe Rogan (0:15)

Good to have you in here, man.

Joaquin Buckley (0:16)

Hey, man, thanks for having me.

Joe Rogan (0:17)

You are the owner of the most highlighted, the most viral video in the history of MMA, I think. That fucking jump-spinning back kick to the face.

Joaquin Buckley (0:26)

I think so, man. It took a minute for me to actually think that it is, you know what I mean? Because there's so many other awesome knockouts out there. You know, like my man, Dan Hendover, Biz B, with the H-bomb, and then with my man, Essence Barboza, with the spinning heel kick on Terry Edam.

And Francis Ngannou, you know what I'm saying? So many different heavy hitters out there with great KOs, but once I really sat back and looked at it and it took some time to actually take everything in, I'm like, yeah, that's pretty dope that I did this.

Joe Rogan (0:56)

And yours was crazy because he's holding one foot and you jump spinning back kick him in the face with the other foot. I mean, that is just wild. I mean, have you ever done that in a fight before?

Joaquin Buckley (1:07)

Nah, so that was my first time. So if you want to really hear it, man, it's a long story with it because nobody taught me that kick. Like I never had an instructor. Really? No, not at all. I was just fascinated with martial arts since I was a little kid. And once I got started with MMA and stuff like that, the gym where I came from, it could only teach so much. The instructors only knew so much. It was just like a mom and pop gym type stuff where a lot of people would just get there to get into shape, you know?

But overall, though, when I used to go on YouTube, I used to watch a lot of different videos on how to not just train as a mixed martial artist, but just to learn different moves and techniques from different disciplines, from not just Tae Kwon Do, but Hapkido, Kushin, Sanshao, all these different disciplines that I used to take from. And then once I looked at the disciplines, I looked at who the best people in it, right? And then I looked at different people that's in those disciplines, whatever. And guess who I ran into when I got into Tae Kwon Do?

I seen one of your videos.

No, no, for real, for real. You taught George St. Pierre how to correctly throw the spinning back kick, you know what I mean? But you at first showed him how to throw the side kick. And I used to watch those videos over and over again. And then it evolved when I seen Raymond Daniels perform the two touch.

Joe Rogan (2:26)

Oh my God, yeah, he did that two touch. That's probably one of the biggest highlight reels in kickboxing history.

Joaquin Buckley (2:31)

Big facts, right?

But I seen that, I was like, man, that's dope, because it's a level up from what you're showing, right? So I used to perform that on the bag, on the heavy bag all the time. And people are like, man, what are you doing? Like, whatever. But I used to generate so much power when I used to balance my right foot on her, not my right, but my left foot, because I would come in like a roundhouse kick, because I'm a softball. I would balance on the bag, and then I would propel myself off the bag, and I would spin. And we used to make this hard pop like a shotgun, right? And would bend the entire bag. So I'm like, bro, I feel like so powerful, like throwing this kick, you know what I mean? But regardless, though, just seeing these people do this stuff, and just learning from them, and just imitating these moves, you know, years later, then I ended up performing that kick.

Joe Rogan (3:10)

You know who's got some of the best instructionals of that, of like traditional kicks like sidekicks and turning sidekicks? Michael Jai White.

Joaquin Buckley (3:17)

I'm already hooked.

I'm already hooked. Watch the thousand.

Joe Rogan (3:20)

Michael Jai White has some sharp technique.

Joaquin Buckley (3:22)

Yeah, big facts, big facts. And on top of that, even before him, Bill Superfoot Wallace.

Joe Rogan (3:27)

Oh yeah.

Joaquin Buckley (3:28)

Come on now. So, you know.

Joe Rogan (3:29)

Well, he had the best hook kick ever.

His hook kick was incredible. Because you know, he only had one knee. His knee was fucked up.