Joaquin Buckley blames Colby Covington 'training comfortable' for title fight losses

Rising welterweight Joaquin Buckley headlines Saturday's UFC on ESPN 63 fight card in Tampa, Fla. against former interim champion Colby Covington.  Buckley will enter the biggest fight of his career thus far ranked ninth in the division and riding a five-fight winning streak.

Buckley was originally slated to face Ian Machado Garry but Garry instead opted to step in to take on Shavkat Rakhmonov at UFC 310 when champion Belal Muhammad was forced to withdraw from the event.  Buckley wanted the Garry fight but believes the Covington match is an even bigger bout..  

"I ain't going to lie, I wanted that fight (against Garry).  Of course we were promoting Buck vs. Cuck, and that was going to be one of the biggest things around," Buckley said during the UFC on ESPN 63 Media Day.  "At the end of the day, I feel like me and Colby, I think that's a big fight too, somebody that's won the interim title, a person that's fought for the title three times.  Even though he lost, he's got a big name.  He has a big persona.  He's got big connections like with the president.  I don't know if the president is going to be there but somebody like that watching my fight it's going to be a big deal.  It's historic.  With that being said, I feel like the Colby fight is way bigger than the Ian Garry fight."         

Buckley and Covington did not train together, but Buckley's been in the same room with Covington training.  Buckley accused "Chaos" of training "comfortable" and that's why he lost in title bouts.  

"I was like, hey man, I can help out with this Kamaru Usman fight.  We should probably get some rounds in, get some training in.  'Man, I'd love that.  That would be cool.'  The funning thing about it, it never happened because he just didn't want to work.  The thing about Colby Covington, he kind of runs his own career and he likes to work comfortable," Buckley said.  

"The thing about me is, even though I do the same thing, I don't like working comfortable.  I like working with new guys.  I like working with guys that are hungry and I like putting myself in a position where it's going to make me better.  That's why I feel like he lost those big fights is because he was always training comfortable," Buckley continued.