Al Iaquinta News

Chris Taylor - December 15, 2018

The octagon returns to Milwaukee this evening for the promotions UFC on FOX 31 event. The fight card is headlined by a lightweight rematch between Kevin Lee and Al Iaquinta. Lee and Iaquinta first met at UFC 169 in February of 2014, with “Raging Al” emerging victortious by way of unanimous decision.

Tom Taylor - December 14, 2018

On Saturday night, the UFC will return to our screens with the stacked UFC Milwaukee card — the promotion’s final event on FOX. This UFC Milwaukee card will be headlined by a high-stakes lightweight contender bout between fearsome contender Kevin Lee and recent short-notice title challenger Al Iaquinta.

James Lynch - December 12, 2018

Through 20-career fights, Kevin Lee has only lost three times. On Saturday at UFC on FOX 31, Lee will look to avenge one of those blemishes as he faces Al Iaquinta in a rematch. Lee was only 21-years-old when he suffered the first loss of his career to Iaquinta back at UFC 169. Losing by unanimous decision at the time, Lee not only plans to get his hand raised on Saturday, but he plans to send Iaquinta back to the preliminary portion of the card.

Drake Riggs - October 10, 2018

The last big Fox show for the UFC will take place on December 15 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. As the card takes shape, we now know the headliner. In February 2014, at UFC 169 a young prospect by the name of Kevin Lee (17-3) made his UFC debut with a perfect 7-0 record. Standing across from him would be The Ultimate Fighter season 15 finalist, “Ragin'” Al Iaquinta (13-4-1).

Tom Taylor - August 16, 2018

Al Iaquinta was briefly expected to return to the cage opposite Justin Gaethje in the main event of the upcoming UFC Lincoln card. Regrettably, Iaquinta withdrew from this fight, citing nagging injuries. He was subsequently replaced by James Vick. According to Ariel Helwani, Al Iaquinta is now healthier than he’s been in some time, and he’s keen to return to the cage soon. More specifically, he’d like to fight this November against former interim lightweight champion Tony Ferguson, who he apparently “can’t stand.”

Tom Taylor - August 6, 2018

Kevin Lee is one of the top contenders in the UFC lightweight division. Unfortunately, “The Motown Phenom” remains largely overshadowed by his peers Khabib Nurmagomedov, Conor McGregor, Tony Ferguson and Dustin Poirier. Perhaps sensing that a title shot is not quite within his reach, Kevin Lee recently made a clever callout of fan favorite lightweight contender Al Iaquinta.

Tom Taylor - July 2, 2018

Initially, Al Iaquinta was expected to battle former World Series of Fighting champ Justin Gaethje in the main event of UFC Lincoln on August 25. But then, Iaquinta was removed from the matchup without explanation, and replaced by James Vick. After Iaquinta was pulled from the fight, there was quite a bit of speculation as to why it happened. Given Iaquinta’s long history of butting heads with the UFC, some wondered if perhaps he’d found himself in another disagreement with the promotion — or perhaps even been given the Leslie Smith treatment and sent packing.

Drake Riggs - June 27, 2018

Well, the search for Justin Gaethje’s new UFC Lincoln opponent didn’t last long. Late Wednesday night it was reported that Al Iaquinta had pulled out of his upcoming main event bout with the former WSOF champion, Gaethje that was set to take place on August 25th.

Tom Taylor - June 25, 2018

UFC lightweight contender Kevin Lee has long been adamant that the UFC needs a 165-pound division, citing the fact that many fighters are too big to easily make the lightweight division’s 155-pound limit, but are also undersized for the 170-pound welterweight division. The key would be to abolish the 170-pound welterweight division, and in it’s place add 165 and 175 pound divisions. “The 155 pound and 170 pound [divisions] are so messed up right now,” Lee said in a recent interview with The Straits Times. “You’ve got three titles between the two divisions already, so they’ve got to add another weight class.

Tom Taylor - June 18, 2018

UFC lightweight contender Al Iaquinta, who will return to the cage to fight Justin Gaethje in the main event of UFC Lincoln this August, is one of the many fighters to speak out against Dana White’s choice to end the practice of early weigh-ins. In fact, he might be the fighter to speak out against it most vehemently. Iaquinta went off on White in a recent interview with ESPN, calling the decision to end early weigh-ins “the last straw,” and assuring that he will do everything he can to assure fighters still weigh in in the morning.

Drake Riggs - June 11, 2018

https://twitter.com/MMAFighting/status/1006272249064812544 “[Dana White’s] sense of reality is gone, it’s gone. It’s shot. It’s absolutely shot. It’s scary. Now he’s putting our health at risk. So why did you move the weigh-ins in the first place? Because in his mind he wants more exciting fights. How are you gonna get more exciting fights? Give the fighters more time to recover, right? Which is also beneficial to us because it’s healthy. It’s healthy for us to replenish, but then he realizes ‘no, now people aren’t making weight more. So this actually was a bad move. Even though it’s healthier for the fighters, we’re gonna move it back to the night time’.

Drake Riggs - June 6, 2018

It looks like Dana White has denied the truth once again. After White’s ‘shutting down’ of the possibility of a fantastic lightweight matchup between Al Iaquinta and former World Series of Fighting champion, Justin Gaethje, ESPN’s Brett Okamoto has now confirmed that the bout will headline UFC Lincoln on August 25th.

Tom Taylor - May 29, 2018

On a recent episode of his podcast Call me Al, recent UFC lightweight title challenger Al Iaquinta suggested there is a possibility he’ll fight former World Series of Fighting lightweight champion Justin Gaethje sometime this summer. “We’re hoping for sometime in August,” Iaquinta said, offering a time frame for this potential fight, but acknowledging that Gaethje probably needs some time off after his last two fights, which were particularly brutal. “August, September. I think they wanted it to be sooner, but like, that guy needs a rest. I was looking out for his health with that one. He needs a break for a minute.”

Tom Taylor - May 22, 2018

On the latest edition of his Call Me Al podcast, UFC lightweight star Al Iaquinta suggested that he could be fighting former World Series of Fighting champion Justin Gaethje this summer. Iaquinta divulged this gem of information when a fan called into the show and asked, point-blank, whether he would be fighting Gaethje. Interestingly, Iaquinta said he was.

Tom Taylor - May 2, 2018

Dillon Danis, a decorated Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioner and a training partner of Conor McGregor, has always received his fair-share of hate. Now that he’s made his successful MMA debut, a first-round submission of Kyle Walker at Bellator 198, the backlash that the brash BJJ player is receiving has surged to new heights. One of the latest fighters to go after Danis is UFC lightweight Al Iaquinta, who recently came up short against Khabib Nurmagomedov in a last-minute lightweight title fight. Iaquinta dissed Danis on Twitter, saying that he hopes former Bellator lightweight champ Michael Chandler gets his hands on him.

Tom Taylor - April 27, 2018

Over the last couple of days, Al Iaquinta and Tony Ferguson have been going at in on social media. The pair’s beef began when Ferguson used Iaquinta’s standing in the UFC lightweight division as a way to delegitimize Khabib Nurmagomedov’s UFC 223 title win. On a recent episode of Submission Radio, Iaquinta explained why he engaged Ferguson on social media.

Chris Taylor - April 15, 2018

VIDEO | Al Iaquinta shares his angle from the Conor McGregor bus attack Earlier this month former UFC lightweight and featherweight champion Conor McGregor and his entourage stormed the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn where they launched an attack on the UFC Fighters Bus.

Chris Taylor - April 7, 2018

MMA Community reacts to UFC 223’s Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Al Iaquinta main event! A lightweight title fight between Khabib “The Eagle” Nurmagomedov and “Raging” Al Iaquinta served as the headliner of tonight’s UFC 223 pay-per-view event in Brooklyn, New York.