Joaquin Buckley would have preferred a five-round matchup against Sean Brady.
Buckley is scheduled to take on Brady at UFC 328 on May 9 at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. Brady and Buckley were originally scheduled to headline UFC Fight Night 274 on April 25 at the Meta Apex in Las Vegas. A main event booking between Buckley and Brady would have been a five-round bout as opposed to their UFC 328 booking, which is a three-rounder.
Buckley recently revealed that he would have preferred headlining a Fight Night in a five-rounder. Buckley initially thought that he wanted to dispatch Brady in the opening round. However, having been out of action for nearly a year, Buckley wants to take his time. Brady has now embraced the UFC 328 booking, as it gives him the opportunity to prove himself alongside several other stars on the stacked card.
“I would have rather been a main event,” Buckley told MMA Junkie. “I would rather have gone five rounds. Especially with me being out for 11 months, I want to take my time. I thought I want to rush it and Brady out of there in the first round. But I realized, it’s been a little minute, and I don’t want to rush it. I want to take my time. But it is what it is. Now we’ve got a stacked card with several big names. Now I get the opportunity to showcase, not only how better I am than Brady, but then also get to outperform everybody else on the card.”
Buckley (21-7) hasn’t fought since a decision loss against Kamaru Usman in June 2025 that snapped a six-fight winning streak. Meanwhile, Brady (18-2) is coming off his second professional loss against Michael Morales via a first-round knockout at UFC 322 back in November.
