Talk to Joaquin Buckley for a minute or two and you'll become a fan. He's got a mega-watt smile, a good sense of humor and he doesn't take things all that seriously. The only bad thing about him, at least to the Pittsburgh Pirates' fans among us, is that he's a St. Louis Cardinals' fan.
But watch him fight and you're hooked instantly.
Buckley is one of those rare fighters with the kind of power to knock opponents out at any point in a match with any type of a strike. He's fought professionally for nearly 10 years and trained in MMA for 12, and for all of the things he didn't know when he was just starting out, the one thing he could always do is knock people out.
If he gets another KO on Saturday when he meets 11th-ranked Vicente Luque in the welterweight co-main event of UFC Atlantic City at Boardwalk Hall, he's going to find himself in the welterweight rankings. And from there, well, who knows?
He's a different fighter as a welterweight than he was as a middleweight, and a lot smarter, as well.
"If people can't really see the dynamic of fighting at 185 and 170, and they're two complete different stories and you can't mix them together," Buckley said. "My welterweight career is so much more different than my middleweight career. Everybody wants to mix them together. I believe that's their downfall, not mine."
Buckley was a welterweight early in his professional career, but was a middleweight in 2020 by the time he signed with the UFC and faced Kevin Holland on Aug. 8, 2020, in his promotional debut. And while he was largely successful -- He was 5-4 with four KOs and four Performance of the Night bonuses -- he wasn't really a serious contender.
He switched to welterweight after back-to-back losses to Nassourdine Imavov and Chris Curtis, and has gone 2-0 since. He'll likely be ranked if he defeats Luque and he believes he'll thrust himself to championship contender's status. It's a long way for a guy who as recently as two years ago was still working full-time at Walgreens and fighting on the side.
He recognized his gifts and decided to maximize them by becoming a full-time mixed martial artist. He's gotten vastly better, he said, and he's. remained exciting. He scored a dynamic KO of Andre Fialho in his UFC welterweight debut and then fought smart and well in a three-round decision victory over Alex Morono.
He's as optimistic as he's ever been about his chances of not just competing but winning at the highest level.
"I really for real, and I'm not just saying this, I really don't see myself losing to anybody," he said. "I look at the rankings and I look at who's all in the Top 10, Top 15, and I just believe I match up well with everybody. I feel like no matter what style they might have, whether it's grappling or whatever, I just feel I can complement any style."
He's got a long way to go to get where he wants, but the Luque fight is a start. He's heartened by the fact that welterweight champion Leon Edwards was in the UFC for more than seven years before he knocked Kamaru Usman out in 2022 and became the champion.
Edwards, he pointed out, only has two knockouts in 17 UFC fights. Buckley has five KOs in 11 UFC bouts, so he's ahead of the champion in that area.
And given that, he took the opportunity to talk a little bit of good-natured trash to the champion.
"Like you said, I'm a fan favorite and there's a lot of people right now, still, who don't know who the hell Leon Edwards is," Buckley said. "It's not that he's not a great fighter. Of course he is. He's an excellent fighter. He doesn't bring that type of fight the fans want to see every single time. That's what I bring. Like I said, March 30 against Vicente Luque, that's what's going to make me a household name."