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