Shavkat Rakhmonov mocks Joaquin Buckley after ‘delusional’ callout

Shavkat Rakhmonov mocks Joaquin Buckley after ‘delusional’ callout

Shavkat Rakhmonov is not here for Joaquin Buckley’s callouts. The terrifying welterweight contender, who boasts a 100-percent finish rate through his 18-0 career, responded after Buckley mentioned his name in late May as a potential opponent. That came after Buckley previously called out Conor McGregor following his win at UFC St. Louis before turning his attention to Gilbert Burns as an ideal next fight.

Buckley apparently just kept looking further and further up the rankings until he landed on Rakhmonov, but the 29-year-old mauler didn’t think much about his callout. “I thought your Conor callout was delusional, but you’ve actually outdone yourself this time,” Rakhmonov said in response to Buckley’s message on Twitter.

By all accounts, Rakhmonov is likely one win away from a title shot after demolishing Stephen Thompson in his most recent outing. While Buckley remains undefeated as a welterweight in the UFC, he’s still several steps behind Rakhmonov in terms of rankings.

After seeing Rakhmonov’s message, Buckley responded again and claimed that it was the fighter’s head coach actually talking on Twitter. “Henri Hooft think he slick,” Buckley wrote. “You can’t talk for Shavkat nor can you fight for him either.”

Since beating Nursulton Ruziboev in May, Buckley has rubbed more than a few fighters the wrong way, including UFC Hall of Famer Daniel Cormier, who took exception to the welterweight referencing his late mother in a separate post on Twitter. Buckley also went after veteran featherweight contender Cub Swanson in another post on social media.

There’s still no word on who Buckley might actually get to fight next, but his callouts have gotten him some attention. It remains to be seen whether that actually works out for his benefit or not.