Joaquin Buckley has called out fellow UFC fighters Dustin Poirier and Sean Strickland over their use of a racial slur, insisting that both men should be held accountable for their comments.
The former welterweight contender recently took aim at Poirier after footage of the retired UFC lightweight champion’s arrest at Atlanta International Airport went viral. Poirier was arrested for public intoxication in June after authorities confronted him over his behaviour.
During the incident, Poirier challenged a police officer to a fight and used a racial slur while addressing him. The footage sparked widespread criticism, prompting Poirier to apologize for his behavior and thank the responding officers for how they handled the situation.
However, Buckley has not forgotten the incident.
On Tuesday, Buckley took to social media to criticize Poirier after the former champion praised UFC heavyweight prospect Josh Hokit, who has attracted attention with a series of provocative and controversial comments.
Buckley questioned Poirier’s explanation for his airport behavior and accused him of using his personal struggles as an excuse.
“It all makes sense to me now,” Buckley said. “Dustin Poirier, you ain’t fooling nobody. All that crying you was doing in them interviews, 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. I start to do shit, certain stuff, and I get this dark side. All that shit was bullshit. All of it was.
“When you can’t just be real and you can’t just keep it 100. When you had that situation that occurred at that airport, it’s a lot of you that came out that day and the frustrations that you had, and it ain’t had nothing to do with missing a flight because you easily could have just booked another.”
Buckley also criticized Poirier for the way he addressed the women who witnessed the arrest and questioned why he directed his anger toward them.
“Now look, I understand if you’re upset, but why the black ladies got to be some hos and shit?” Buckley said. “‘Fck these hos, fck these hos.’ And then the only dude that was in there and that’s trying to give you mercy and grace—because I ain’t going to lie to you, I would tase your ass. I would have had you looking all crazy, going viral for the wrong shit. ‘It’s gonna be bad for you my n*gga.’ And the dude showed you grace, because he’s like, ‘No, I don’t want no smoke with you. Like, I understand your frustrations, I don’t want no problem.’
“But I loved it how when that other police officer showed up, talking about that big dog, big man came in the building. You sobered up real quick. Shit, you even giving dude his flowers. ‘Aw man, you did a good job, man. Go ahead, put me in the cuffs.’ Naw, naw, naw, don’t change up your energy now. Stand on that. Say, ‘It’s going to be bad for you my nggas,’ you should have stood on business and popped up on anybody that was there, but you knew you was bullshit. You felt like you had somebody that you could play with, so you played with that ngga.”
Buckley accused Poirier of borrowing from Black culture without genuinely supporting the community.
“Dustin Poirier don’t fck with us,” Buckley said. “Yeah, he’d like to be one of us. He likes it when he pulls up his little jeans and shit when he fights, he likes to scuff his little nose when he’s doing shit. Wants to say, ‘Yeah, I’m from Lafayette, I’m from Lafayette, I went to school with all the black folks.’ Corny-ass motherfcker.
“This is the real, too, all you guys condone it. Every single one of y’all. Because I love it how you say, ‘I love Josh Hokit. I’m a major fan of him.’ Because he talking that shit that you love to talk, too. Because that’s the only way I see it. … Dude is a racist. Dude is a motherfcking racist. Dude is a btch, a big btch at that. And Din [Thomas], I ain’t even going to lie to you, you’re breaking my heart condoning all this shit. Being on that side of the motherfcking field. Come back over with us, come back over, because we’ve had conversations, you know this. Don’t be condoning that shit.”
“I’m going to tell you all right now, for real, it can be like that, any person that got a problem with what I’m saying, especially you Dustin Poirier, if you really want to roll up and do something about it, I promise you this: In your words, it’s gonna be bad for you. my n*gga,” Buckley said. “Pull up and do something.”
“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.
“We showing ya it’s not like that in the UFC I approach everyone with the same attitude and people avoid me,” Buckley added. “And that’s the mf truth.”
Poirier eventually responded to Buckley’s criticism in the comments section on Wednesday.
“Tryna get some views? Shut up or kill me!” Poirier wrote.
The comment prompted Buckley to post another video, in which he questioned Poirier’s response and challenged him to meet face-to-face.
“I like this comment right here,” Buckley said. “It did what it needed to do. It got your attention. It got views. But this comment don’t make no sense. This n*gga said, ‘Shut up or kill me.’ How you really want to take care of this? How you really want to handle this, ‘DP?’ Because I promise you don’t want to do that.
“Not that long ago, that’s what you wanted to do to yourself. Delete yourself. Remove yourself from the Earth. Don’t put a charge on me. … But I’ll tell you this real quick. When I see you, let’s have that conversation. Let’s talk about it. And if you don’t want to talk, [I won’t talk] either, but you take the first swing. You take the first swing, but I promise you I’ll get the first hit, though.”
