Joaquin Buckley: Kamaru Usman training for UFC 328 'a beautiful situation'

Joaquin Buckley: Kamaru Usman training for UFC 328 'a beautiful situation'

Joaquin Buckley had no hesitation accepting an invitation from Kamaru Usman to train together before UFC 328.

After Buckley suffered a unanimous decision defeat to the former longtime welterweight champion in June, he was presented an opportunity to travel to South Florida and train with Usman at Kill Cliff FC.

It was perfect timing, because after Usman scored four takedowns and logged near 13 minutes of control time in their match, Buckley (22-7 MMA, 11-5 UFC) now has a fight with grappling specialist Sean Brady (18-2 MMA, 8-2 UFC) on Saturday's card at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. (Paramount+).

"Shout out to Usman for calling out and reaching out to me," Buckley told MMA Junkie. "Just letting me know that I can come out and learn a couple things from him. For the team to embrace me and welcome me with open arms, I really am appreciative. Shout out to Kill Cliff, shout out to Usman. It was a beautiful situation.

"It was an easy decision. Why not take the opportunity with someone who beat you, or the team that beat you and try to lean something that you might not have known? A lot of things that my coach had shown me pretty much got confirmed from Usman and from Henri Hooft. So it was good confirmation that what I'm working now is exactly what I need to work on for this fight. I'm glad I took the opportunity to go out there."

Buckley was originally scheduled to fight Brady in the main event of UFC Fight Night 274 on April 25 at Meta APEX in Las Vegas. It was pushed back, however, and downgraded from a five-round fight into three rounds. Buckley said he would've liked the additional rounds to display his improvements and unleash a more tactical game plan, but he's found the silver lining in fighting at UFC 328 instead, and is ready to deliver something spectacular.

"I would've rather been a main event and have it gone five rounds," Buckley said. "Especially with me being out for 11 months. I wanted to take time. I thought I wanted to rush it and get Brady up out of there in the first round, but I realized it's' been a minute and I don't want to rush it. I want to take my time."