Joaquin Buckley is done after one more fight, and now he’s explaining why. The welterweight told Parry Punch that the title shot he believes the UFC could have handed him, and didn’t, is a big part of the decision.
“That’s why I did this sport: to become a champion,” Buckley said. “No other thing else.” He was blunt about what the belt meant financially, too: “If you want to get paid, if you want to eat what you kill, you gotta win that belt.”
Then came the line that’s been bouncing around since Parry Punch posted the clip on November 11. “And I had one opportunity. I had one opportunity that they really could have gave it to me, and they didn’t. And they played me. And I’m sorry, I can’t get over it.”
He also had a message for the people telling him to grind his way back. Paraphrasing the encouragement he keeps hearing, he quoted it as “Buck, just do it again. We believe in you.” His answer: “Y’all gotta believe in something else.”
How he got here
Buckley spent years as an undersized middleweight before dropping to 170 in May 2023, and the move flipped his career almost overnight. He ripped off six straight wins at welterweight, including stoppages of Colby Covington and Stephen Thompson, and climbed into the Top Five with a title shot looking like the logical next step.
It went elsewhere. When Shavkat Rakhmonov got hurt, Jack Della Maddalena got the short-notice crack at Belal Muhammad. MMA Mania argued Buckley was arguably on the better run at the time, and that’s the opportunity the outlet tied to his complaint.
What followed was rough. Buckley came back a few months later and dropped an upset to Kamaru Usman. Sean Brady then held him down for a loss. Last month, on October 17 at UFC Fight Night in Edmonton’s Rogers Centre, Mike Malott knocked him out. After that one, Buckley stunned people by announcing he’d retire following one more fight.
He’s 32, with 30 pro bouts behind him. No opponent or date for that final appearance has been reported yet.
Quick take
I get every word of this. Buckley did the thing the UFC always tells fighters to do: he changed divisions, he stopped names, he climbed, and he got leapfrogged at the exact moment the door was open. That kind of timing can break a guy’s spirit faster than any loss, and you could argue the Usman, Brady and Malott results came from a fighter who’d stopped believing the ladder led anywhere. Still, 32 is young for a welterweight who throws like he does, and MMA retirements have a way of unretiring. If this really is the last one, I want the UFC to give him a fun, violent matchup instead of a quiet prelim send-off. He earned a loud exit.
