Joaquin Buckley has decided Dustin Poirier’s airport arrest is worth a fight. Sherdog reported late Tuesday that Buckley called out the former interim lightweight champion after news of the incident went viral, and he wants whatever beef exists between them handled inside the Octagon.
According to Sherdog, Buckley took the episode a lot more seriously than most people did. That tells you how the rest of the internet handled it. Plenty of folks treated it as a punchline. Buckley treated it as an opening.
The available reporting is thin on the arrest itself. It doesn’t include a location, a charge, or a response from Poirier’s camp, and Buckley’s exact words weren’t published in the material I’ve seen. So I’m not filling in blanks. What’s confirmed is the sequence. The incident spread, Buckley pounced, and Poirier’s name is now attached to a callout he didn’t ask for.
The timing is a little funny. On Nov. 2, Poirier was on UFC on Paramount+ breaking down Dan Miragliotta’s decision to stand up Renato Moicano while Moicano had Tom Nolan’s back. Poirier pitched his own fix for it: “I got a simple fix, bring back the yellow card. Then the referee doesn’t have to get involved and stop it.” That was a calm, policy-minded take from a veteran who sounds comfortable in the analyst chair. Two days later he’s the target of a public challenge tied to an arrest.
His recent résumé against the elite has been unkind. Max Holloway beat him during Holloway’s run with the BMF belt, and before that Justin Gaethje beat him for the vacant BMF title. He does still own a stoppage of Benoit Saint-Denis, who sits at 17-4 and No. 9 in Sportsnaut’s latest lightweight rankings, so the scalps are there.
Buckley’s most recognizable opponent in the current reporting is Stephen Thompson, a former two-time welterweight title challenger he fought at UFC 307 in Salt Lake City on Oct. 5, 2024. Thompson is set to retire after he faces Charles Radtke at UFC 334 at Madison Square Garden later this month.
Now the grumpy-odds-guy part. No booking exists, no promotion has said a word, and there is no line to bet, which is the only correct number for a callout built on an airport clip. Poirier built his career at 155, and Buckley’s best-known dance partner in these reports is a career welterweight, so somebody would have to move. Callouts that grow out of off-cage drama tend to have the shelf life of a gas station sushi roll. If the UFC actually posts this one, I’ll want to see who’s cutting weight and how long Poirier has been out before I pick a side. Until then, the fight on my calendar is Thompson vs. Radtke at MSG.
