Don’t call it a comeback: Iaquinta interested in fighting again, at 170

‘Raging’ Al Iaquinta was scheduled to fight Thiago Alves UFC 205, but withdrew over issues he found with his contract. Iaquinta has not fought since April 4, 2015, due to a knee injury. In July of that year, the UFC mandated Reebok apparel only during fight week.

Iaquinta’s contract was for $26,000 to show and $26,000 to win, with another $5,000 in Reebok money. He is also ineligible for a fight of the night performance bonus in his next three fights, after skipping the yearly fighter’s summit in favor of training for a fight that was five weeks out, and making money as a personal trainer. Iaquinta had cited sickness for his absence, but his social network showed him at the beach. Coupled with wrecking a hotel room after his fight with Joe Lauzon, and cursing on live television after his fight with Jorge Masvidal, the UFC heard him out on a con call and then removed the possibility of a performance bonus for the remainder of his contract.

His last fight, a split decision win over Masvidal, was the first on his four-fight contract. Most of his sponsors left with the Reebok deal, although a couple of key endorsements plus running through his savings kept him afloat during the long recovery from injury. When he looked over his contract, it no longer made sense to him, so he stopped fighting and started selling real estate.

Now during an appearance on Submission Radio, Iaquinta said he still wants to fight. And while the UFC 205 fight vs. Alves was supposed to be Pitbull’s first fight at 155, Iaquinta is willing to go up to 170.

“I definitely would rather be fighting,” he said. “It’s pretty hard when you’re fighting in front of thousands of people or whatever, and then you’re working in the office. But I gotta be honest, as far as my health goes, this is probably the healthiest I’ve been in a while. No injuries and I’m not going home every day with neck nagging, pain, stuff like that. So that’s definitely a good part. I miss a lot of it, but a lot of it I don’t miss. And I feel like I’m kind of saving myself. I don’t know. It’s not been easy, but I know I’m doing the right thing for right now. I’m going out to Denver this weekend to see Aljo {Aljamain Sterling] and I’m sure I’ll see a couple of people from the UFC and maybe we’ll have a conversation, maybe we won’t. But I definitely miss fighting, that’s for sure. I definitely miss fighting.

“II’ve just been kind of doing my own thing and leaving it at that. [The UFC] kind of just said, ‘Reach out to us when you’re ready to fight again.’ And that’s that. It is what it is. I’m just kind of taking it day by day and I’m just seeing how it goes.

I don’t even know if it’s that I was fighting for what I believe in. I just kind of… I’m thinking for right now, I was hurting, my body was hurting a lot, I was not getting paid a lot. I got hurt. I felt like I was kind of hung out dry for a little bit. So I took a little break and see, you know, maybe the Real Estate thing is what I wanna do, maybe it’s not. It’s just… it’s tough.

“It’s not like I took a stand. And a lot of people made it that and I guess maybe I was kind of doing it, but I just really didn’t feel like fighting in New York in November for what the conditions were, for the guy that I was fighting, for the amount of money I was fighting for, the amount of money that that event was bringing in just didn’t feel right to me. It didn’t make sense to me to fight for what I was gonna fight for.

“So I asked them if we could talk about renegotiating something and I basically got cursed out. So yeah, I just went on, did my own thing and that’s it. They’re running a business, I’m running a business. That’s all it is. I gotta look out for my health though. That’s the first thing. When I’m going to a training camp and I’m flying people in and I can’t sleep good at night because my neck’s hurting. You know, I had two knee surgeries and then I take a year off and I’m asking them, ‘Can I do appearances? Anything I can do? I realize I can only get paid when I fight. I realize I only get sponsorships when I fight, but is there anything I can do when I’m out?’ And they were really just like, ‘When you’re ready to fight, let us know.’ So I don’t know. We’ll see.

“Hopefully I get back in there soon. I’m still in shape, I’m still hungry, still ready to go if there’s a right fight that makes sense. I don’t know. I haven’t really talked to anybody. I’ll talk to my manager when we go out to Denver and we’ll kind of sit down and see where we’re at.

Iaquinta remains interested in the Alves fight.

He couldn’t make 155, so I’d be willing to go up to 170 if he just wants to chill out,” said the New Yorker. “I’ll go up to 170 and fight him. I think that’d be good, that’d be fun. I wouldn’t have to cut weight. He fought Jim Miller. I guess he cut a lot of weight so he didn’t look great. But if he wants to fight at 170, that’d be cool. So there’s a lot of fights out there. So we’ll see.

If I go up to 170 and I fight like a 155’er at 170, makes a lot more sense to me. I feel like, if I’m gonna cut 15 pounds and I’m gonna starve myself and diet for that long, I should be compensated for it. So definitely gotta take that into consideration. That’s a lot less work to have to fight at 170. So if I fight, maybe come back – I’ve been out for two years – so fight somebody at 170. Who knows, maybe I’ll stay at 170. I fought Jorge Masvidal at 155, he went up to 170 and he’s doing good, so I don’t see why I wouldn’t be able to do good. I’d be faster than everybody. The strength would be something I’d have to deal with, but I’ve sparred with 170-pounders in the gym all the time and I do great. So I think that might be a definite option for me.

Iaquinta also discussed sponsorships and the various attempts to organize fighters.

I don’t know if there is any sponsorship anywhere else,” he said. “I think the Rebook thing… I mean the UFC … They run everything. And when the sponsors dropped out of the UFC, I think they kind of fell off of everywhere. There’s even guys in Bellator, I don’t know if they’re getting paid that much cause with the sponsorships, I think a lot of it just dried up. If guys aren’t gonna be sponsored in the UFC, If they’re not going to throw money into the UFC, I don’t know if they’re going to throw it in anywhere.

There are three main efforts to organize fighters, the MMAAA, the PFA, and the MMAAA.

“They reached out to me and definitely I have a lot of interest,” said Iaquinta. “I think that it’s necessary immediately. I think that the UFC should be the ones starting this union. If they want the drug testing, right? Cause they want everything to be fair and level playing field, just like the other sports. They should want a union so that everything’s fair, just like the other sports. You hear them talk about the drug testing. We have the most strictest drug testing policy so that it’s fair for the fighters. And it’s such a big deal that it’s fair for the fighters, so shouldn’t it be fair for the fighters to have their own say and have their voice being heard, just like the other sports?

“So I think the UFC, every time someone asks them a question, their response is, there can’t be a union cause these guys are independent contractors. So I think they should be the ones trying, if not push for it, just make sure it happens in the right way. Cause eventually it’s gonna happen, and I think if they had part in it, it would be a lot better. But I guess that’s definitely against their business practices or whatever they got going on. But as far as it goes, I don’t know. There’s a couple of different organizations and we’ll see.

“I think the newest one is the Mixed Martial Arts Athletes Association with GSP and TJ Dillashaw and Tim Kennedy and those guys. So I think that having a guy like GSP is huge. I think they have a lot of big-name guys and I think that’s the best shot as of right now. I’m definitely staying in contact with them and we’ll see what comes about with that for sure.

I’m down with them all, for sure. I’m down with all of them. Yeah, I’ve talked to them all and I think they all have a good plan. I definitely don’t think it’s the kind of thing where I have to choose just one. I think we’ll see which one has the most backing, which one has the best plan. I don’t like kind of attacking the UFC stance. I think it needs to be done more where you’re working together. I think Bjorn Rebney – I don’t know if it was a little… confrontational, I guess. I think it kind of sat the wrong way with a lot of people. So I think that was a big thing, you know, having him there in the announcement of it. But I know him and Dana probably don’t get along at all. To be honest with you, I spoke with him and he does seem to really care about the fighters and want this organization to do well. So we’ll see.