Buckley Calls Out Krause For UFC 257: ‘I Really Want To Hurt This Man’

Viral KO sensation Joaquin Buckley made a successful return at UFC 255, scoring a less spectacular but no less effective knockout of Jordan Wright during the prelims of UFC 255. It was another entertaining performance from Buckley, who clearly wants to keep the momentum going with another fight sooner rather than later. And this time he has an opponent in mind, although he won’t say the man’s name.

“There’s other dudes out there that I want to fight, who talking that nonsense, and I really want to give it to em,” a hyped up Buckley said. “Cuz when I hurt em, the referee can’t save em. You guys know who I’m talking about. Look up my name on YouTube, you’ll see him. He’s the only person talking stuff. I don’t need to give his name out, just do your homework and you’ll know who I’m talking about. Fight Island, January 23rd.”

For those of you doing your homework and landing here, let us confirm that yes, Jaoquin Buckley is talking about James Krause, another St. Louis fighter that has gone out of his way to share his poor opinion of Buckley.

“He’s notorious for calling out people two to three classes below him which to me is such a bitch move,” Krause told Lynch on Sports a month ago. “I just don’t have a lot of respect for people who do that. I don’t see him calling out heavyweights. He’s called a bunch of people out from my gym … a middleweight calling out a lightweight. And then it’s always like ‘You’re a pussy if you don’t go up.’”

“But I’ve literally never heard a good word about the dude. He’s been kicked out of every gym in St. Louis because all he wants to do is fight people, he’s not a good training partner and he’s not out to help anybody.”

“He hit me up basically saying ‘I don’t want to train, I want to come spar,’” Krause continued. “And I was like ‘That’s not how it works here in my spot.’ He’s like ‘How does it work?’ I said ‘Well, you’re either on my team or you’re not. You hit me up, I don’t need any extra guys, we have 35 people on the mat this morning at 10AM so you obviously need me not the other way around.”

“And he starts running his mouth talking about ‘I would beat you and your boys’ and I said ‘Dude, I’ve been in the UFC longer than you’ve been fighting. Get out of here, miss me with that s**t.’ I ain’t afraid of you, I’ll fight you tomorrow.”

So that catches you up on the drama from Krause’s side. Here’s what Buckley said about the situation during the UFC 255 press conference.

“It’s just the mentality where I come from, a lot of people hating on each other,” Joaquin said. “A lot of people don’t want to see another person rise up and be successful if they can’t be put in that position themselves. So I think this hatred is envy. Because at the end of the day whatever he said about me, he could have proved by me coming in and sparring him.”

“He wasn’t willing to do that, and he just wanted to keep a brother down. I had to go to a whole other place to get some love. And they don’t complain about me and my sparring at all. No I don’t [train like an asshole]. You can ask Khaos, you can ask anyone from Murcielago MMA, they’ll tell you the truth.”

But if Krause wants the fight, he’ll have to move up a weight class.

“Stop playing. He said he wanted to fight at 185, he fought his last fight at 185,” Buckley said. “Let’s do it at 185. Don’t make it easy on him. 185.”

“I’m ready. I’m still hyped. Like I told you, for the next person, I really want to hurt this man. Not even to be funny. I really want to hurt this man. Ain’t no referee going to be able to save him when I get in there. So there’s going to be problems. But it is what it is. I’m still hyped to get this fight, whatever it is, on January 23rd, if they’ll allow me to fight.”