Joaquin Buckley is making headlines after getting into heated online exchanges with Josh Hokit, Dustin Poirier and Sean Strickland 🥩 What started as social media callouts has quickly turned into one of the messiest online feuds in the UFC right now. The drama isn’t slowing down anytime soon 👀
Joaquin Buckley has spent the past several days trading barbs online with Josh Hokit, Dustin Poirier and Sean Strickland, a run of exchanges that began as social media callouts and has grown into one of the more heated feuds in the UFC right now. The back-and-forth, dated November 5, has shown no sign of cooling.
Buckley, 32, is a ranked welterweight, sitting 13th in the division with a 21-9 record. The Murcielago MMA fighter is also coming off a rough stretch inside the cage. He has lost three straight recorded fights, most recently a second-round TKO against Mike Malott on October 17, preceded by a unanimous decision loss to Sean Brady at UFC 328 in May and a five-round decision defeat to Kamaru Usman in June 2025. That context gives the online noise an edge, since the 13th-ranked welterweight is trading insults while chasing a win.
Strickland arrives in the exchange from a very different place. The 35-year-old is the reigning middleweight champion with a 31-7 record, having beaten Khamzat Chimaev by split decision in a title fight at UFC 328 on May 9. He followed a third-round TKO of Anthony Hernandez in February with that title win, and he lands 6.04 significant strikes per minute at 42 percent accuracy. Strickland is a division up from Buckley's welterweight home, though the two share an identical 76-inch, 193 cm reach.
Poirier, 37, owns a 30-10 record and fights out of American Top Team. His most recent recorded fight was a unanimous decision loss to Max Holloway at UFC 318 in July 2025, which followed a submission defeat to Islam Makhachev in a title fight at UFC 302. He lands 5.24 significant strikes per minute at 50 percent accuracy, well above Buckley's 3.55 per minute at 36 percent.
By the numbers
- Buckley is 32, Poirier 37 and Strickland 35, so he is the youngest of the three by three to five years.
- Buckley's 1.37 takedowns per 15 minutes tops both Poirier (1.15) and Strickland (0.71).
- Strickland holds a title, while Buckley is on a three-fight losing run.
The feud has no scheduled bout attached, and nothing in the exchanges points to one being made.
