Following his emphatic knockout win over Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson at UFC 307 this past Saturday, Joaquin Buckley called for a number one contender fight against the former welterweight champion, Kamaru Usman.
‘New Mansa’ had to bounce back from losing the first two rounds, albeit very closely, to knock out Stephen Thompson in the third round of their big welterweight clash.
After receiving such heavy criticism from Daniel Cormier for calling out Conor McGregor following his last win against Nursulton Ruziboev, Joaquin Buckley this time decided to make good use of his mic time.
Kamaru Usman responds to Joaquin Buckley’s UFC 307 callout
Instead of calling for an extremely unlikely fantasy fight, the 30-year-old called for a number one contender fight against former champion, Kamaru Usman.
Although even the callout of ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ may be hopeful, with Buckley now inside the top 10 of the 170lb division, he will likely be given another fight up the rankings next, considering his five-fight win streak.
Usman hasn’t fought since October last year when he moved up to middleweight on short notice to take on the feared Khamzat Chimaev. After coming up marginally short in that fight, the 37-year-old admitted that he is going to move back down to welterweight for his next fight.
“Well, I mean, take a number and get in line. I believe he’s probably, what, the tenth or eleventh guy, I don’t know how many guys have called me out, it is what it is, like DC said, it’s a more reasonable callout for him because he is on this streak,” Usman began to explain on the Pound 4 Pound Podcast.
“Hats off to him, he did a great job, if that’s the fight then that’s the fight, if it’s not it’s not. Obviously, right now I’m working on myself and trying to get myself back because I’ve fought injured for so long to where I achieved all the things I achieved but at some point, it does catch up to you.
“Like I said, I ain’t going nowhere, I’m still here and eventually I will get in there and show the people that I am once again the King,” Usman continued.
Joaquin Buckley and Kevin Holland squash their beef following UFC 307
Ahead of their respective fights at UFC 307, Buckley and Kevin Holland continuously chirped each other at the UFC fighter hotel and seemed to be gearing up to possibly rematch at some point.
Holland’s night didn’t go as successfully as Buckley’s though, as in the first round of his fight against Roman Dolidze, he suffered a freak injury which resulted in his corner pulling him from the fight.
UFC star Conor McGregor was extremely critical of Holland ‘quitting’ the fight, which ‘The Trailblazer’ went on to apologize for on his Instagram.
Despite Buckley’s and Holland’s ongoing feud, the two bumped into each other backstage at UFC 307 after both of their fights, and Holland was quick to congratulate Buckley for his huge win.
In the video, the two shook hands and seemingly squashed their beef as Holland told Buckley he would no longer call him ‘son’ and applauded him for a very clever gameplan, calling him an ‘OG of the sport’.