Joaquin Buckley has an opportunity to kill two birds with one proverbial stone.
Not only can “New Mansa” become the next welterweight champion, he can also anoint himself the next big star in combat sports. But that requires Belal Muhammad to retain his title against Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 315 on May 10 in Montreal.
That’s because the promotion has “different moves” if Muhammad loses.
“I always like to prepare for that next move,” Buckley said on Instagram. “Once I beat Usman, my mentality and where I wanna go is to get that belt. Pray Belal is the one that wins. Because if he doesn’t win, if JDM wins, I already know the UFC got different moves that they’re trying to do. So I’m hoping Belal wins. Once he wins, knock his ass out, and then go ahead and proceed to be the biggest star in the UFC.”
Stars are few and far between these days, according to the scuttlebutt on social media.
“Right now, the big talk is that there are no stars in the UFC right now,” Buckley continued. “And if there are, they lost or fumbled the bag in some type of way. So I really feel like this is my opportunity to show up and show out. Yet again, I gotta go into that cage, get my hand raised — but not only get my hand raised, go out there and dominate this man and get the knockout that I know that I can get.”
Buckley would become just the second fighter to do it.
None of this matters unless “New Mansa” can defeat former welterweight champion Kamaru Usman atop the UFC Atlanta fight card in June. Buckley is six years younger than Usman at 31 and currently riding a six-fight winning streak with four knockouts.
This top contender may have something to say about it.
