Joaquin Buckley sets eyes on Conor McGregor after UFC St. Louis win with bold callout - "Come and bully me"
In a bizarre turn of events, Joaquin Buckley called out Conor McGregor following his win at UFC St. Louis. The event took place at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis, Missouri on May 11.
Buckley (19-6) squared off against Nursulton Ruziboev in a welterweight bout in the co-main event of UFC St. Louis. The former was coming off a three-fight winning streak against the likes of Andre Fialho and Alex Morono.
In his last octagon appearance, Buckley faced Vicente Luque in the co-main event of UFC Atlantic City on March 30, where 'New Mansa' secured a second-round TKO victory.
Ruziboev (34-9-2), debuted inside the octagon in July 2023 against Brunno Ferreira at UFC Vegas 76, winning via knockout in the opening minutes of the fight. He entered the contest following a controversial first-round TKO win against Sedriques Dumas at UFC Atlantic City on March 30.
Buckley controlled Ruziboev's legs and repeatedly took him down. Although Ruziboev reacted with some crisp striking of his own, Buckley was the more aggressive of the two. He appeared to be landing more powerful hits. In round 3, Buckley took over the fight and almost put Ruziboev down with ground and pound.
Ruziboev resisted the attack and even reversed his stance to gain the upper hand but Buckley foiled all his attempts to win via unanimous decision.
After his impressive performance over Ruziboev, which extended his winning streak to four, Buckley took the mic in his post-fight octagon interview and called out McGregor despite the fact that his return bout against Michael Chandler has already been scheduled for UFC 303.
Buckley said:
''[Conor McGregor] I want you, you’re fighting at 170lbs but you ain’t fighting a welterweight, you’re fighting a lightweight midget. Come at me bro, come at me, you said you built your weight up but you’re bullying Sean O’Malley and Ryan Garcia, come and bully me dawg.''
Check out Joaquin Buckley's comments below: