Midnight Mania! Gilbert Burns accepts Joaquin Buckley’s callout: ‘I never say no’

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Fresh off his dominant win over Nursulton Ruziboev at UFC St. Louis last weekend (Sat. May 11, 2024), Joaquin Buckley may have found his next dance partner. Initially, Buckley used his post-fight interview to call for a showdown versus Conor McGregor, but “New Mansa” pretty quickly realized that wasn’t going to happen. Appropriately, he changed his target to former Welterweight title challenger Gilbert Burns.

Buckley has called to fight “Durinho” previously, as he’s faced several of Burns’ Kill Cliff FC team mates, like Vicente Luque. Though Burns is coming off a fairly nasty knockout loss to Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 299 back in March, the Brazilian is down to jump back into action and accepted Buckley’s callout on his Show Me The Money podcast.

“Let’s do it,” Burns responded. “The way I see it, I’m not in the situation to call anyone out or to pick and choose. I’m [ranked] number six right now. I don’t know, if they send me [a contract], I’ll say yes now. I never say no to a fight, and I’m not planning on start doing.”

At 37 years of age, Burns has to get back in the win column sooner than later if he’s going to work his way back to a second title shot. He’s lost two fights in a row, the aforementioned knockout loss to Maddalena and a decision defeat to Belal Muhammad. Prior to those defeats, Burns had won two straight fights.

As for Buckley, the rising knockout artist has won four straight since dropping to 170 lbs. He’s looking for the biggest win yet of his career, whereas Burns would have the opportunity to rebound against a tough opponent. If the timeline works for both, the bout makes sense.

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