Dana White ended 2024 with a bang with UFC Tampa and 30-year-old Joaquin Buckley emerged as the welterweight winner. In a solo affair, ‘New Mansa’ sent Colby Covington to the shadow realm in three rounds and even gave ‘Chaos’ a gash on his eyelid, forcing a doctor’s stoppage. Now Buckley is moving on to 2025 with a perfect record of 6-0 in his last six bouts and has no intentions of slowing down.

Interestingly, his rankings have drastically changed fresh off sensational victories. UFC Tampa gave pretty big shakeups in the rankings and was punctuated by Buckley, who had a notable surge of 3 positions. According to the update from Jed I. Goodman on X, Buckley has climbed three spots.

The post said, “Updated #UFC WW rankings. Joaquin Buckley is up 3 spots. Colby Covington is down 3 spots.” He is now #6 while Colby Covington dropped 3 spots, standing at #9. Buckley has established himself as a formidable threat to other welterweight fighters with this win.

Since ‘New Mansa’ is riding high on his victory, he even presented a challenge to legendary Kamaru Usman and included reigning champ Belal Muhammad as well. He declared in the post-fight presser, “I think it’s Kamaru Usman, baby. Let’s do it.”

Nonetheless, Muhammad has yet to respond to this callout, but the ‘Nigerian Nightmare’ did not waste time responding to this challenge. So, what was Usman’s response?

Kamaru Usman replies to Buckley’s challenge

The Nigerian Nightmare, on his podcast ‘P4P,’ stated, “When I’m healthy, I’ll whoop everyone of y’all. I don’t care who it is, but one thing I won’t do, because I’ve done it for so long, is compete when I’m not ready. I remember watching the Buckley fight and thinking, ‘I like that matchup.’ When I’m healthy, I will dominate anyone, no matter who it is.”

Usman with a 20-4 record had a loss to Khamzat Chimaev in 2023 even though he defeated Buckley’s opponent Covington back in 2021. Running at a 3 fight-losing streak, the once-dominant force in welterweight has not fought for more than a year.

The three losses have shaken his confidence and the man who did not hesitate to take fights at short notice- sometimes with just 10, or even 5 days’ notice—has now decided to take a hiatus of more than a year to make his comeback. 

However, he still has opponents lined up wanting a fight with the list, including Ian Garry and, more recently, Joaquin Buckley. Fans are eagerly waiting for his return and Dana White is yet to give any information regarding this. Tune in to see the news as soon as there is an update!