Joaquin Buckley is impatiently waiting for his next fight to be booked in the UFC, and still believes he’s one win away from a shot at the welterweight title despite a recent loss to Kamaru Usman.
Buckley voiced his discontent on a video posted on his YouTube channel days away from a UFC 322 main event clash between 170-pound champion Jack Della Maddalena and Islam Makhachev in New York, and said that Usman is the next deserving contender given his history in the sport.
“I truly believe that Usman is the rightful next person to fight for that belt,” Buckley said. “You got a great fight between ‘JDM’ and Islam that’s gonna happen, and regardless of who wins that fight, whether it’s JDM or Islam, I truly believe that Usman should be next to fight for that belt. Because yet again, he has accomplished so much, has done so much.
“You’ve seen Dana White on the Pound 4 Pound podcast talking about Usman being the welterweight GOAT over Georges St-Pierre. I gotta respect him, right? Because Usman, at the end of the day, has already solidified who he is as a fighter, even moving up and fighting a person like Khamzat [Chimaev] on 10 days notice, still giving that boogeyman a lot of trouble and a lot of problems. And if it would have been a proper five-round fight, he probably would have got Khamzat out of it. He probably would have finished him. You gotta respect that man and let him go ahead and fight for his strap again.”
Buckley was called out by Gabriel Bonfim following his recent UFC main event win over Randy Brown, but complained “I don’t know” when he will enter the octagon next because no name big enough has asked to face him since his clash with Usman in June.
“I’ve been really kind of feeling some type of way that ever since my fight with Kamaru Usman my name kind of went silent, right?” Buckley said. “A lot of guys in my division, you know, I’m like Voldemort, they don’t wanna say my name.”
If it was up to Buckley, his next bout would be against Shavkat Rakhmonov.
“Y’all already know that I’m coming back, bro, and I’m coming back with a vengeance,” Buckley said. “But I don’t want just no random-ass fighter. Give me a f*cking name. Give me somebody that can level me up too. Because like I said, I’ve been putting on these promotions. I’ve been talking my shit for a long time. I need another big name. And I’m a shout them out right here. I’m a do it right here, right now. Shavkat! You said you wanna come back? Early Feb? Come see your boy, Buck! Cause you was always chirping and saying, Buck easy work, light work. Then show the world that. You’ve been M.I.A. for a minute and we’ve been waiting on you. And I think that’s an excellent fight for me and Shavkat to have.”
Unbeaten in 19 professional fights with a 7-0 run under the UFC banner, Rakhmonov hasn’t fought since a decision victory over Ian Machado Garry in December 2024 as he is currently dealing with serious knee injuries. Rakhmonov seems to be angling for an early 2026 return to action.
“And then after we do that, I believe once I knock out Shavkat I’m next for that belt as well,” Buckley said. “But you already know, if Usman go for that belt and he just happen to win, I love my brother but that’s when the rematch either gotta be made, or my man gotta move up. But either way, I’m coming for that throne.”
Several top-ranked welterweights are booked to compete over the past two weeks, with Leon Edwards facing Carlos Prates and Sean Brady taking on Michael Morales on Nov. 15 at Madison Square Garden, and Garry flying to Doha to take on ex-champion Belal Muhammad.
“Ian Garry. Y’all know how we talked about him and his wife, right?” Buckley said. “You talk about Sean Brady. He still got me blocked on Instagram. You talk about JDM. I talked about giving him a free nose job, right? And even this one that’s moving out to the weight class now. These guys just don’t want to say my name, right? Look, if I was just so much easy work and I wasn’t as talented as a lot of you guys say, which is the UFC fans, then think about this, why aren’t these guys calling me out? I’m still No. 7 in the world, I still got a great rank, and I still got a good name.
“But these guys, they’re going to dodge me like the plague. And like I said, respect to Usman because he went through that threat, right? He fought me, and he was able to get his hand raised and be victorious. But he still knew that the threat that he had, which was me, that he knew that anytime I was on my feet it was a potential that I could knock him out. And he already knows himself that I’m gonna give a lot of guys problems.”
Buckley was on a six-fight winning streak prior to his loss to Usman, a welterweight run that included victories over Colby Covington, Stephen Thompson and Vicente Luque.
“At the end of the day, come on now, I’m the biggest name in the welterweight division and I’m gonna keep shouting it out,” Buckley said. “I’m gonna keep saying it because nobody gives the type of fights that I’ve been doing. And the 170 weight class, where all these guys have started there in their career since 2020 or 2021, they haven’t put on a résumé within one year that I didn’t put on, right? Not only just knocking out ranked opponents, but going out there and promoting their fights ahead of time, going out there and doing meet-and-greets, going out there and doing seminars, going out there and just being a performer like I am.
“There is nobody in the UFC that works harder than Buckley. Like I said, the numbers is gonna go up at the end of the day, but I just find it funny that it took one man out of a whole division to say my name. That’s got to mean something.”
Up next for Buckley, it was announced Thursday he is replacing an injured Corey Anderson to wrestle Iowa State All-American Pat Downey at a Real American Freestyle event on Nov. 29.
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