Joaquin Buckley Willing to Step in as Replacement for UFC Welterweight Title Fight

Joaquin Buckley kept things short and sweet during his appearance at the UFC Tampa post-fight press conference on Saturday night.

“New Mansa” secured his sixth consecutive triumph in the evening’s main event, earning a technical knockout victory via doctor stoppage against Colby Covington at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida. When he addressed media after the card, Buckley answered just one question but did manage to address of number of topics in his response.

“My first main event was a big success,” Buckley said. “I feel like the whole card was very successful, getting a lot of knockouts. I feel like my fight shouldn’t have been stopped. It is what it is. You’ve got to protect the fighters. I feel like 2025 is definitely my year and we definitely taking over. With this being said, this is on a six-fight winning streak. I’ve got eight knockouts within the UFC.

“I feel like I’ve done enough to really put myself in a position to, yet again, fight for that title. Even though I know Shavkat [Rakhmonov] is next, blessed to that fight, but if anything happens where Shavkat or Belal [Muhammad] doesn’t step up into the Octagon, I want to face them. At the end of the day, we’re going to keep this nice and short, bro. I’m definitely looking to take that throne in 2025, bro. We out.”

Rakhmonov staked his claim to the No. 1 contender’s spot with a decision triumph over Ian Garry in the UFC 310 co-headliner one week prior. While it is expected that Rakhmonov will challenge for 170-pound gold against Muhammad next, a date for that bout has not been confirmed. Buckley was originally supposed to face Garry at UFC Tampa before Muhammad withdrew from a proposed title defense against Rakhmonov at UFC 310. That led to some reshuffling for the promotion’s final two events of the year, and Covington ultimately agreed to face Buckley on short notice.