Gabriel Bonfim has a backup callout if Colby Covington doesn’t agree to face him next, and that name is Joaquin Buckley.
Bonfim issued a challenge to Covington after his past two UFC bouts, wins over Stephen Thompson and Randy Brown, saying “I’m going to retire” the former interim champion. He got no response, though, and now suggests facing the man that beat Covington in December 2024.
“I called out Colby, but Joaquin Buckley is also available,” Bonfim told MMA Fighting. “I think he’s pretty much
the only one I want to fight who’s free right now. And I think it’s a good fight too. If Colby doesn’t accept, then it’s Joaquin Buckley. If Colby does, it’s Colby. I’ll take either one.”
Bonfim won 19 of 20 professional bouts with a 6-1 record in the UFC, finishing four of his opponents to cash three post-fight bonuses. Buckley had a lot of momentum in the welterweight division after winning six in a row, including victims like “Wonderboy” and Vicente Luque, but lost his most recent one to Kamaru Usman in June.
“That was cool, man,” Bonfim said of Usman’s win over Buckley in Atlanta. “The good thing about Buckley’s fight with Kamaru is that we got to see some solid strategy, right? [laughs]”
Buckley was on the news recently for claiming Alex Pereira avoided fighting him in the past. “Poatan” immediately exposed past messages sent his way at the time, telling him to “go back to the end of the line” after allegedly ducking him prior.
“He’s starting to get a little desperate, chasing a bit of hype,” Bonfim said of Buckley’s attack of the man who now holds the UFC title divisions above him. “‘Poatan’ kills him [laughs], no chance. He’s just trying to get some buzz.”
“[Buckley is] coming off a loss to Usman and might take the fight,” he continued. “There are other guys in the division who could take it too. This Saturday, six of them are fighting, and after that a couple more, so things are getting sorted out in the division. I believe by early 2026 there’ll already be fights booked.”
Bonfim picks Islam Makhachev to dethrone welterweight champion Jack Della Maddalena in the main event of Saturday’s UFC 322 in New York, and sides with Carlos Prates and Sean Brady on their matches with Leon Edwards and Michael Morales on the Nov. 15 card. He picks Ian Machado Garry to beat former champion Belal Muhammad the following weekend in Doha.
Regardless of who’s next in front of him inside the octagon, Gabriel hopes his brother Ismael Bonfim is not on the same card. They have shared the same event many times before, and Gabriel came out victorious against “Thompson” and Brown on after Ismael’s stoppage losses to Nazim Sadykhov and Chris Padilla.
“That’s what we decided, to focus on one of us at a time,” Bonfim said. “If they book Ismael a fight, then Gabriel waits to fight later on. He’s got two fights left on his contract and needs to renew it. So we’re focusing on getting that third fight done, winning it well, and God willing, getting a new contract.
“There were a lot of things happening, weight cuts and all that, and it all adds some weight on both our shoulders,” he continued, referring to Ismael’s weight miss. “He’s my brother, my blood, and we always want both of us to win. Just like he wants me to win, I want him to win too. I want him to be on the same level as me in his career, you know?”
