Joaquin Buckley Adds Holloway and Volkov to His List in Racial Slur Controversy
Joaquin Buckley named Max Holloway and Alexander Volkov alongside Strickland, Poirier and Hokit in a growing controversy over racial slurs in MMA.
Joaquin Buckley is not done naming names. The UFC welterweight has added Max Holloway and Alexander Volkov to his public call-out of fighters he says have used the N-word, expanding a controversy that already included Sean Strickland, Dustin Poirier and Josh Hokit.
Buckley, who goes by "New Mansa," posted on Instagram challenging all five fighters directly. Per Sherdog, he said he will stop bringing up "the race card" if any of them can walk into an all-Black club, get into the DJ booth without security, and say the word out loud.
Buckley previously confronted Strickland in person over the slur. Holloway allegedly used the word casually, and Volkov reportedly made a video saying it with teammates, according to the Sherdog report.
Strickland fired back in the comments. He bet Buckley would never say the word in a club himself, made a jab about Buckley going to the IRS with his tax returns, and called him "a Black Karen."
Volkov responded by mocking the challenge entirely, asking why he would go to an all-Black club in the first place.
Neither Hokit, Poirier nor Holloway have publicly responded. There has been no statement from the UFC.
The timing adds another layer. Hokit fights on the UFC 334 card this Saturday against Ciryl Gane, meaning this conversation will follow him into fight week.
Buckley is keeping this conversation alive whether people want to hear it or not, and honestly, maybe that is the point. The challenge is theatrical, but the underlying issue is real. Multiple fighters are being called out for using a racial slur, and the responses range from deflection to mockery.
Strickland calling Buckley a "Black Karen" tells you everything about where that conversation is going to go. Volkov treating the whole thing as a joke is not much better. Nobody is actually engaging with the substance of what Buckley is saying.
This is not going away. Hokit has UFC 334 this week and Strickland is the middleweight champion. The UFC staying silent might work for now, but at some point the promotion is going to have to address why so many of its fighters keep ending up in the same conversation.
