Belal Muhammad loses fan vote for Joaquin Buckley’s next opponent in awkward UFC Tampa promo
This Saturday in the UFC Tampa main event, Joaquin Buckley extended his win streak to six in a row after butchering the returning Colby Covington.
After almost a year away from action, Colby Covington sat and bided his time, returning at what he thought was a perfect time.
With the welterweight division currently devoid of any immediate contenders outside of Shavkat Rakhmonov, Covington believed he could put himself back into title contention with a win over Joaquin Buckley.
Colby Covington suffers a doctor stoppage defeat to Joaquin Buckley
The main event started off in quite bizarre fashion, as Covington was walked out by WWE legend, Hulk Hogan, after teasing all week that his walkout would be historic.
Things then got increasingly worse for the former interim welterweight champion, as early into the fight, he was caught with a sharp uppercut which caused a cut underneath his eyebrow.
‘Chaos’ fought on for two more rounds, unable to implement his controversial wrestling-heavy gameplan, finding himself getting plastered around the Octagon by ‘New Mansa’s’ powerful and fast striking.
The cut underneath Covington’s eye got increasingly worse, and before round three began, he was warned by the doctor that she wasn’t going to let it go on for much longer, telling him to protect the eye.
Near the end of round three after a brief scramble on the ground, the 36-year-old seemed to leak pretty badly from his eye, which caused the referee to halt the action and get the doctor in to check on it.
After a brief check, the doctor rendered Covington unable to continue, handing him back-to-back losses for the first time in his 12-year professional career.
Joaquin Buckley lets the fans decide his next opponent in awkward promo
This marks the biggest win of Buckley’s career thus far, with him now potentially cracking the top five of the welterweight division.
Now riding a six-fight win streak, Buckley believes he is in place for a number one contender fight, or potentially hoping to skip the line straight to Belal Muhammad.
During his Octagon interview, the 31-year-old gave the fans the chance to pick his next opponent, giving them three options.
“Since everybody is leaving, that’s a damn shame because the fans are gonna pick my goddamn opponent next,” he began to explain.
“The fans are gonna pick my opponent, alright. So I’m gonna give you three names, alright, the one that you all make the most noise for, that’s who I’m gonna pick for my next opponent.
“First name right here, Leon Edwards,” as the fans gave a mild cheer.
“Second name, Kamaru Usman!” Buckley shouted as the cheers got increasingly louder.
“And the last one, take the throne from Belal Muhammad, which one, let’s go?” as the cheers returned to a mild note.
“I think it’s Kamaru Usman baby, let’s go,” Buckley decided.
Kamaru Usman is currently weighing up his options regarding a return having stated he wants to return to welterweight following a fight against Khamzat Chimaev at middleweight.
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