Terence Crawford thought his fighting days were behind him after retiring in 2025.
The 42-0 boxing superstar retired on top after beating Canelo Alvarez to change into the undisputed super middleweight champion in September.
Now, ‘Bud’ has found himself locked in an unlikely feud with UFC welterweight Joaquin Buckley.
It began when ‘Recent Mansa’ took exception to Terence Crawford and Shakur Stevenson talking down about MMA during a recent livestream with Adin Ross.
- LATEST NEWS: Canelo Alvarez reveals issue along with his legs as he breaks down Terence Crawford loss
Joaquin Buckley calls out Terence Crawford
Joaquin Buckley initially targeted Shakur Stevenson following his ‘disrespectful’ boxing vs. UFC claim
Terence Crawford subsequently branded him ‘clueless’ for claiming he could kill Stevenson in a fight.
Now, the 170lb UFC contender has challenged Crawford to spar him on the UFC APEX next month.
“Bud is talking crazy, acting like he would do something within the streets, saying he’s going to flip the switch, he’s going to wish the switch if he’s fiddling with me,” Buckley said during a nine-minute video he shared on Instagram.
We aren’t going to do that within the streets. That was some good deflection. He didn’t wish to answer what I asked him, and that’s to get that work. We are able to keep it out of the streets, we ain’t going to be playing like that.
“Let’s get within the ring, let’s spar. You might be out in Vegas quite a bit, you spar on the Apex, you’re employed on the Apex. I believe it could be fun. The entire world would really like to look at. I do know you continue to train for the approach to life, I do know you continue to spar.
“I see Shakur thinks something is funny, but at the top of the day, let’s discover because I’m dead serious about that… Any individual said you wish a payday, this ain’t got nothing to do with a payday, I’m willing to do that at no cost.
“That is an open invitation to Bud Crawford. Let’s do it on the Apex. I’m going to attempt to make my way all the way down to Vegas on March 7.”
Joaquin Buckley’s next fight
Joaquin Buckley hasn’t fought since getting outpointed by Kamaru Usman at UFC Atlanta last June.
The defeat snapped a six-fight winning streak that had Buckley on the verge of a welterweight title shot.
Now, the 31-year-old is impatiently waiting to seek out out who and when he’ll fight next for the UFC.
Former 170lb champion Jack Della Maddalena is who Buckley hopes to be matched up against next.
It seems unlikely that the UFC will book their primary contender against a person propping up the highest 10.
Buckley could also be more realistic along with his next call out after recently difficult ‘JDM’ and Terence Crawford.