UFC lightweight contender Al Iaquinta 31, last fought at UFC 223 where he stepped in last minute to square off against undefeated Russian Khabib Nurmagomedov at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center for the lightweight title. Iaquinta dropped a lopsided decision to Nurmagomedov, but he pocketed big paycheck for his efforts.
Couple weeks back, ‘Raging Al’ revealed via his podcast that he’s in talks with UFC over lightweight matchup with Justin Gaethje, the former World Series of Fighting (WSOF) lightweight champion. It didn’t take long to Justin Gaethje who also showed interest in stepping into the Octagon to lock horns with Iaquinta.
UFC president Dana White who says Gaethje vs. Iaquinta is a fight he wants to make but pinning Iaquinta for it not happening.
To remind you, Al Iaquinta who signed the new deal with UFC back in March before his last fight, now he wants another deal to fight Gaethje and White isn’t too thrilled about that:
“Yeah, that’s a fun fight, but it isn’t going to happen,” White said ( Via MMANytt). “Iaquinta is absolutely 100-percent out of that fight.”
“He believes that I’m pretty sure we just did a new deal with Al Iaquinta and he just got a good payday against Khabib and he feels like, he has a deal, let me reiterate he has a deal,” White said.
“He feels like if he moves up and fights guys higher ranked than him that he should be paid a lot more money. He feels that if he fights guys that a lower ranked than him, then he should make a lot less money.”
The 11-ranked Iaquinta has been very vocal about compensation and has been at odds with the UFC for past couple of years. After getting a new deal, things seem better between “Ragin’ Al” and the UFC management.
What do you think a showdown between Iaquinta vs. Gaethje should happen next?
