Despite all his rage, Al Iaquinta is still just a fighter in a cage — banned from bonuses. That is according to a new report from MMAJunkie quoting a UFC official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
According the the anonymous UFC official in question, “the premise for his whole beef is not accurate, and I think he’s trying to justify the fact that he thinks he should still get bonuses.” Sounds like we have some drama here, folks. “Ragin'” Al recently slammed the UFC, imploring them to cut him. The word “sissies” came up. So far, the promotion has not given him the axe.
The source did tell MMAJunkie, however, that his most recent bout — a 98 second dismantling of Diego Sanchez at last month’s UFC Fight Night 108 — is the first of a trio of fights which sees Iaquinta banned from receiving any performance bonuses. According to the UFC, that stems from three incidents, mainly the fighter trashing a hotel room in Las Vegas after UFC 183, blowing off a fighter’s summit in 2015, and cursing on national TV.
The anonymous official contested the fighter’s claim that he informed the UFC he was unable to make the fighter’s summit, saying “not calling us, not telling us that he wasn’t going to show up, having to send a car to the airport to pick him up, literally, and him not being there – how immature is that?”
A UFC official also took offense to a claim made by Iaquinta that he had to beg for knee surgery in the past. “It was a chronic injury, and since it was a chronic injury and not something that happened while training or fighting for us, the insurance denied it” the official told MMAJunkie. “The UFC paid tens of thousands of dollars to cover that out of our pocket without any obligation to do so” he later stated, adding “Al never once called anyone to thank them. Instead he goes out on the Internet and says he had to beg for it, which is absolutely, 100 percent false. That’s a lie.”
No word on when, or if, Al Iaquinta will be back in the cage.
