Joaquin Buckley’s callout of Conor McGregor following UFC St Louis is being roundly mocked on social media.
The exciting welterweight had his hometown crowd in the palm of his hand as he dominated popular rival Nursulton Ruziboev on Saturday night. But he couldn’t keep them excited as he directed his attentions towards McGregor in a callout that immediately fell flat.
Buckley almost instantly backtracked and directed his attentions towards Gilbert Burns, but not in time to avoid being branded as ‘the worst callout of all time’ on social media. The shout was deemed so bad that it was analysed almost as much as his stunning performance by experts online and in the media.
Daniel Cormier mocks Joaquin Buckley’s Conor McGregor callout
During this week’s episode of Good Guy/Bad Guy on ESPN, Buckley’s callout was brought up by hosts Daniel Cormier and Chael Sonnen. The former is a former two-weight world champion while his co-host has competed for belts at two different weights and is renowned as the sport’s best trash talker.
Neither were impressed by Buckley, with Cormier saying: “[He fights a] Dangerous opponent, wins, gets the microphone and goes super long. That is very telling of the situation because you never get that much time on the mic.
“Then he goes to the Conor McGregor thing and they [the St Louis crowd] start to boo him. How did he manage to turn heel in his home town? Then he tells them not to boo him! I have never seen [that].
“On X formerly knows as Twitter, universally panned. Now I’m going to see Joaquin Buckley and he’s going to approach me like they all do because he’s one of those guys that does approach you.
“But that was horrible, how do you do that? I don’t know what he was doing, Chael. It was by far the worst, then he goes and he calls Conor McGregor’s [dad] a bad name it was even worse. It was bad.”
Chael Sonnen believes Joaquin Buckley should have told Conor McGregor ‘lie’
After Cormier’s impassioned rant, Sonnen declared that he would have taken a different tact in Buckley’s position. The former middleweight and light-heavyweight contender is one of the sport’s most famed talkers, and continues to make headlines through his various shows and podcasts.
And he feels that Buckley should have claimed that he had already been called out by McGregor in a brazen lie that would get the sport talking. Sonnen would famously tell tall tales during his career, and is still infamous for claiming that he was ‘undefeated and undisputed’ despite holding a 30-17-1 record.
“He had something pocketed,” Sonnen theorised. “He had a plan to some degree and a lot of guys think that if they can just say the name Conor McGregor. To a degree Michael Chandler had that same feeling but Michael Chandler has something a little bit different and a little more special, we understand that.
“I think Buckley would have been best to lie. I think he would have been best to say ‘Conor McGregor I am sick of you calling me out! How about you get a win over Chandler first and then we see how badly you want to do this’.
“I think he should have left the audience with that and people would be saying ‘Conor called Buckley out?’ Conor would probably go on social media to let him know ‘there’s been a mistake, good job tonight’.
“Whatever you need to do, including fibbing. if your other option is to stumble over your words and tell the crowd to have a different reaction, what was the old saying? When you’re in a hole, quit digging.”
Joaquin Buckley pivots fight callout to Gilbert Burns
Within minutes of his callout of McGregor, which was immediately nixed by UFC boss Dana White, Buckley decided to take a more measured approach. He is currently ranked number 11 in the division, and went for number six Gilbert Burns, who needs a win after two losses on the bounce.
“I’m definitely not going to get that, but why not take chances, right?” He said of McGregor. “I’ve been doing it up until this moment, so why not make the biggest callout that I can make? If Michael Chandler doesn’t show up for the fight, ‘New Mansa’ will be ready.
“Gilbert Burns, I think it’s a beautiful fight, a beautiful matchup. I don’t know when he’s going to be cleared or when he’s going to be ready, but Gilbert Burns, definitely.”