Joaquin Buckley warns Islam Makhachev of his move to the UFC’s welterweight division.
UFC CEO Dana White confirmed that, upon vacating his lightweight title, Makhachev (27-1 MMA, 16-1 UFC) will get an immediate shot at newly crowned welterweight champion Jack Della Maddalena at a date to be determined.
Buckley (21-6 MMA, 11-4 UFC) will look to emerge as the next title challenger when he takes on former champion Kamaru Usman (20-4 MMA, 15-3 UFC) on June 14 in the UFC on ESPN 69 headliner at State Farm Arena in Atlanta. If the stars align and he gets an opportunity to face Makhachev, Buckley is confident that he has the style to pose him the most problems.
“Even though Islam and I have never had a connection, I’ll tell you right now, he’s going to know a lot about me if we ever get booked to fight,” Buckley said in an interview with Parry Punch. “The people he has struggled with and the people that have shown a couple of holes in his game, I’m going to be his worst nightmare, not JDM. JDM has a lot of holes that Islam can exploit.
“We’ve seen that with the Gilbert Burns fight. Actually, we’ve seen it with several fights from JDM where he was struggling in the grappling. But with me, and what I did to Colby, and what I’m going to do to Kamaru Usman, Islam, it’s going to be in his head. Even Khabib is probably going to tell him maybe moving up ain’t a good idea. I bet you, but I’m hunting for that. I want that pound-for-pound.”
Buckley has shined since dropping back down to 170 pounds. He is 6-0 as a welterweight in the UFC, most recently stopping Colby Covington by TKO in the UFC on ESPN 63 headliner this past December.
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: UFC’s Joaquin Buckley says he’s ‘worst nightmare’ for Islam Makhachev at welterweight
