Who’s next for Joaquin Buckley after Kamaru Usman loss?
MMA Junkie’s Mike Bohn plays matchmaker and looks ahead to what makes sense for Joaquin Buckley
Daniel Cormier only sees positive things for Joaquin Buckley after he suffered his first loss at welterweight in the UFC.
Buckley (22-7 MMA, 11-5 UFC) saw his six-fight winning streak snapped when he dropped a unanimous decision to former champion Kamaru Usman (21-4 MMA, 16-3 UFC) in this past Saturday’s UFC on ESPN 69 headliner at State Farm Arena in Atlanta.
Despite the loss, Cormier thinks Buckley’s stock remains high. He credits him for never giving up throughout the fight after getting stifled on the ground for a good portion of it.
“He’s brash, he’s loud, and he was annoying, but now he seems to be doing the right things,” Cormier said on “Good Guy/Bad Guy” with Chael Sonnen. “And guess what? He can fight a lot, and this dude is in shape. That was probably the most impressive thing to me was that, after going through that, going through as hard of a fight as he had, and he was able to still fight at the rate that he fought. In that fifth round, that was crazy impressive to me watching Joaquin Buckley.”
Cormier is confident that if Buckley can fine tune his takedown defense, he’ll be a major threat at 170 pounds.
“I was very impressed with Joaquin Buckley,” Cormier said. “And in very few cases, a guy comes out better after he loses. I feel like that’s what we’re looking at with Joaquin Buckley because I think he fought well. He was very brave in the fifth round, he showed that he can go 25 minutes with one of the best fighters in the world. He just looked like he belonged. … If Joaquin Buckley can pick up a couple of those little details where he’s not getting taken down, he’s going to be a real problem for anyone in that weight class, and I feel like Joaquin Buckley after Saturday is honestly better off even if he lost the fight.”
