Joaquin Buckley called out Conor McGregor after defeating Nursulton Ruziboev at their Fight Night bout in his hometown of St. Louis last night. In his post-fight octagon interview, the welterweight star challenged the biggest star in MMA history, asking him to try to “bully” him before going on to insult McGregor’s mother and ancestors.

However, the call-out and the uncouth language used by the ‘New Mansa’ has not gone down well with the fighting world. Including analysts and former UFC superstars Daniel Cormier and Chael Sonnen on their ‘Good Guy/ Bad Guy’ Show on YouTube. The duo agreed with the widely-held fan sentiment that Buckley had dropped the ball badly in his call-out of ‘Mystic Mac’.

‘DC’ and Sonnen trash Buckley for botched Conor McGregor call-out

Cormier was shocked to see Buckley get booed by fans in his own hometown after the welterweight issued his infamous challenge to Conor McGregor. But, the former heavyweight champion understood where the fans’ fury was coming from since Buckley had one of the worst call-outs in UFC history, during which Buckley proceeded to even bad-mouth the Irishman’s mother.

“He goes to the Conor McGregor thing and they start to boo him, Chael. How did he manage to turn heel in his hometown? … Then he tells them not to boo him… I have never seen [anything like this]… And then universally on X formerly known as Twitter, universally panned as one of the worst call-outs of all time now,” ‘DC’ said.

“But that was horrible. How do you do that? I just don’t know what he was doing Chael… And then he goes and he calls Conor McGregor’s mom a bad name? It couldn’t have gotten worse,” he added.

While New Mansa’s call-out has not gone down well with almost anyone, and Dana White has flatly refused to even entertain the matchup, there were very good reasons for the Missouri native to try and fight ‘Notorious’.

Mainly money. A fight against McGregor, the biggest star in the promotion by far, is guaranteed to make a lot of money. And if Buckley could negotiate favorable terms, he would get the biggest payday of his career, perhaps ever. Not to mention the boost in popularity, name recognition, and star power that a McGregor fight would bring. But Buckley, being a smart man, had a back-up plan following Dana White’s point-blank refusal.

Joaquin Buckley wants “a beautiful fight”

In the post-fight press conference following his victory last night, Joaquin Buckley admitted that he is “Definitely not going to get that [Conor McGregor fight].” However, ‘New Mansa’ felt that it was worth a shot since he had everything to gain (a possible McGregor bout) and not much to lose since there was no chance he would get to fight the UFC’s first concurrent two-division champion, anyway.

“But why not take chances. I’ve been doing it up until this moment so I said, ‘Why not make the biggest callout I can make?'” he asked.

On being asked who he wanted to fight next after the McGregor fight was off the table, Buckley named UFC veteran and welterweight gatekeeper “Gilbert Burns” as he thought it would be “a beautiful fight” because “it’s a beautiful matchup.” Whether this dream of his will be fulfilled or not, Buckley really missed out on a McGregor fight thanks to his call-out. What are your thoughts on Buckley’s McGregor call-out?