Is Joaquin Buckley in danger of being cut? UFC Edmonton fallout
Joaquin Buckley entered his welterweight bout with Mike Malott with everything to lose, and he may very well have just lost it all.
No one understood Joaquin Buckley's position ahead of UFC Edmonton better than the man himself. He was in desperate need of a win and did everything he could to keep the spotlight on himself during fight week. All while radiating an intensity that may have backfired when he refused to shake Dana White's hand.
What will become of Joaquin Buckley?
In the leadup to his UFC Edmonton main event with Mike Malott, Joaquin Buckley made it a point to show how locked in he was. He iced out backstage interviewers, answering their questions with zero eye contact and complete silence. Then came the most bizarre moment at the ceremonial weigh-ins, when he refused to shake Dana White's hand in his face-off with Malott, confusing the UFC president. Come fight night, he refused to touch gloves with Malott and seemed determined to prove a point. Round one saw Buckley try to close the distance by exploding into combinations, while Malott peppered him from range with kicks.
Eventually, Buckley found his moment by rocking Malott with a big right hook. Despite swarming him, he couldn't capitalize on it, and the fight progressed to the second round. At that point, it devolved into a clinch battle, with Malott landing knees to the body. Later in the round, after picking up on how Buckley level changes before entering range with a combination, he intercepted him with a brutal knee, knocking him out cold. It was a crushing end to Buckley's evening, and it was made worse by White later joking about cutting him due to his snub at the face-offs. But, there's more to the story, because Buckley is in the worst position he's ever been in, despite still being relatively young at just 32 years old.
The loss to Malott was his third in a row. He was previously dominated by Sean Brady at UFC 328, getting outgrappled to such an extent that he looked helpless on the mat, losing via unanimous decision. It was a repeat of his prior unanimous decision loss to legendary welterweight Kamaru Usman, who also outwrestled him in dominant fashion at UFC on ESPN 69. Now, Buckley's on a three-fight losing streak, which was only compounded by his odd behavior during fight week. He's always been athletic and powerful, but his skills have consistently failed him against better competition.
So, the past notion that he's a future champion or top contender in the making was inaccurate, because it's one thing to lose to an all-time great like Usman or a bonafide elite welterweight like Brady, but Malott? A top 15 welterweight who lost to Neil Magny? That's not exactly promising. He's probably not going to get cut, but he's on borrowed time if he keeps up his odd behavior and continues losing.
