Despite seeing his impressive run halted at UFC Atlanta over the weekend, welterweight contender, Joaquin Buckley has vowed to go down as one of the greatest fighters to ever compete at the weight class by the time his career in the Octagon is over.
Buckley, who headlined his second consecutive card over the course of the weekend, saw his eye-catching unbeaten run spanning six straight fights come to an end, courtesy of a decision shutout loss to former champion, Kamaru Usman in the pair’s meeting in Georgia.
And struggling to deal with the dominant wrestling and top control of former pound-for-pound number one, Usman, St. Louis native, Joaquin Buckley had staked his claim for a title shot with a victory — welcoming pairings with either Jack Della Maddalena, or imminent challenger, Islam Makhachev.
Joaquin Buckley vows to be considered a great by UFC swansong
However, forced back to the drawing board for the first time since his 2022 knockout loss to the veteran, Chris Curtis, Buckley remains unbeat despite his loss, maintaining that when his career comes to its close, he will be considered one of the greatest fighters to ever grace the Octagon.
“Hand wasn’t raised last night but I am still victorious and will be one of the greats,” Joaquin Buckley posted on his official Instagram account. “
Hand wasn’t raised last night but I am still victorious and will be one of the greats
This trip has been beyond amazing and I wouldn’t change a thing that happened in my fight camp everything was perfectly planned I just didn’t execute like I know I could… we wanted to land early damage on Usman and get him moving back but he did a good job neutralizing threats with takedowns.
But don’t get it twisted usman was more concerned about holding me than hurting me in this fight but he did what he felt was necessary to win and so can’t be mad at him Congrats to @usman84kg and his Team and @francisngannou I saw message 
Excited about the welterweight divisionSee ya when I see ya” (H/T MMA Junkie)
With his defeat to Usman, Buckley saw his run of wins over the likes of Colby Covington, Stephen Thompson, Vicente Luque, and Alex Morono come to a halt.
