Two former training partners found themselves on opposite sides of a public confrontation, but thankfully, the exchange didn’t spill into an all-out brawl. More than two weeks after his devastating knockout loss to Mike Malott at UFC Edmonton, welterweight contender Joaquin Buckley decided it was time to confront Sean Strickland over something the UFC middleweight champion had said a few months earlier.
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During a Brand Risk event in May, Strickland sparked outrage after casually repeating the N-word in response to a comment made by someone else. “Tap n—a, I like that,” he had said. While the remark drew considerable backlash on social media at the time, Buckley apparently felt it was time to challenge Strickland about it directly.
At a recent event, Joaquin Buckley and an associate ran into Sean Strickland and immediately confronted him about his use of the racial slur. In the grainy footage shared online, Buckley and his associate can be heard questioning the middleweight champion over his choice of words.
“I see what you trying to do,” Buckley told Strickland.
“Brother, don’t call people the N-word. It’s offensive, G,” Buckley’s associate added. “It’s disrespectful, bro.”
“If anybody tells me not to do anything, I am gonna do it,” Strickland responded.
The interaction grew increasingly tense.
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However, after a few minutes of back-and-forth, the two appeared to put their differences aside and went their separate ways. But that wasn’t the end of it.
Buckley shared the confrontation video online, along with a message explaining why he had approached Strickland.
“We saw Strickland and I approached him and I let him know I know what he doing but these platforms you got to be careful what you say at all time,” Buckley wrote in the caption.
That post apparently didn’t sit well with the middleweight champion, who has now responded by sharing their sparring footage online.
The brief and grainy clip shows Strickland landing a shot on a fighter who is rushing toward him. As soon as the counter connects, the fighter gets dropped to the canvas.
Looking at the clip, it wasn’t clear whether it showed Buckley being knocked down. However, Strickland left little doubt about who he was referring to in the caption.
“Sit down Buckley,” the 35-year-old wrote.
“Love it. #NowDoItAgain,” Buckley replied in the comments.
The feud only escalated from there, with Strickland taking a dig at the 32-year-old over his recent run of losses.
“I will say this with all sincerity, I feel bad watching the fall of Buckley,” Strickland wrote in another comment. “I told you this before and I’ll tell you this again, if you can drop this bs act you’ve been playing and move to Vegas, I will teach you how to fight.”
“Bro, I think your brain needs a little CTE break,” Strickland added in response to Buckley’s comment.
Strickland’s pattern of controversial remarks extends well beyond this incident.
At UFC 297, he made inflammatory comments about LGBTQ people and questioned women’s place in sports, saying, “I want to see lions fight.”
He also faced backlash after confronting a reporter over his earlier comments about gay people. Then, in October 2025, while filming content with Nina-Marie Daniele, better known as Nina Drama, Strickland used a racial slur and laughed it off. He joked, “What? Don’t look at me like I’m Bryce Mitchell,” referring to another UFC fighter known for his controversial statements.
Those incidents help explain why Joaquin Buckley treated the Brand Risk remark as more than just careless wording.
Meanwhile, Buckley’s criticism of Strickland is hardly an isolated reaction. In February 2025, he publicly called out Conor McGregor and Marvin Vettori for using the N-word, arguing that fighters should speak up when others disrespect their community.
However, things weren’t always this bad between the two, though. Buckley and Strickland had previously trained together at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas, making their current public feud all the more interesting. Despite their growing animosity, an actual fight between them is unlikely to materialize anytime soon.
Strickland competes at 185 pounds, while Buckley fights at 170, making a matchup between the two difficult to arrange at their current weights. But never say never in the UFC.
More importantly, Strickland isn’t the only UFC star Buckley is currently feuding with.
After Sean Strickland, Dustin Poirier responds to Joaquin Buckley’s threat
Joaquin Buckley also took aim at retired UFC star Dustin Poirier over the footage of his arrest at an Atlanta airport in June.
Footage from the incident showed an intoxicated Poirier arguing with officers, threatening one of them, and using a racial slur. Poirier later apologized for his behavior and thanked the officers involved. However, Buckley questioned whether his explanation matched what had unfolded.
Buckley’s anger grew further after Poirier publicly supported controversial heavyweight Josh Hokit, whom Buckley had criticized for making disparaging remarks about Black women. Buckley felt Poirier’s support for Hokit raised questions about how sincere his own apology had been.
“It all makes sense to me now. Dustin Poirier… you ain’t fooling nobody,” Buckley said in a social media video.
He then brought up Poirier’s comments about struggling to adjust to life after retirement, including his appearance on The Diary of a CEO, where the former fighter discussed needing distractions to keep himself from falling into a dark place.
“All that crying you was doing, in that interview, right? Talking about, ‘Man, I just need a distraction. If I don’t have a good distraction. If I don’t have something to focus on. I get into chaos, man. I start to do s–t. Certain stuff, and I get this dark side of me.’ All that was bull s–t. All of it was,” Buckley said.
He then questioned Dustin Poirier’s treatment of the women involved in the airport incident.
“I understand if you are upset, but why the black lady gotta be some h–s and s–t? ‘F–k these h–s?’ And then the only dude that was in there, and that was trying to give you mercy and grace. I’m not gonna lie, I would have tested your a–. I would’ve got you looking all goddamn crazy, going viral for wrong s–t.”
The UFC welterweight then challenged Poirier directly, telling him to meet face-to-face if he disagreed with his criticism.
“Especially you, Dustin Poirier, if you want to roll up and do something,” Buckley added. “Pull up and do something.”
Poirier responded beneath Buckley’s post, accusing him of chasing attention online instead.
“Tryna get some views? Shut up or k-ll me!” Poirier wrote.
Buckley answered, “It got your attention. It got views.”
But Buckley wasn’t finished. In another clip, he brought Poirier’s earlier mental health struggles directly into their public exchange.
“Not that long ago, that’s what you wanted to do to yourself,” Buckley said. “Delete yourself. Remove yourself from the Earth. Don’t put a charge on me.”
“You take the first swing,” Buckley said, warning Poirier that he would land the first hit if things turned physical.
Dustin Poirier has not publicly responded to Buckley’s latest remarks, leaving their exchange unresolved as of now. Meanwhile, with Sean Strickland now joining the list of fighters Buckley has publicly challenged, it remains to be seen whether their latest feud will eventually spill over into an actual fight.
