After an extended beef with Ultimate fighting championship (UFC), Al Iaquinta has official restructured a new contract with the promotion to remain fighting inside the Octagon for the foreseeable future.
His first fight on his new deal will see him face off against Paul Felder at UFC 223 on April 7, 2018 in Brooklyn, New York.
“They ripped up my old contract and gave me a new contract for this last fight, and they gave me a new contract for this fight,” revealed Al on a recent edition on The MMA Hour. Still, while he wouldn’t reveal how many fights he signed on for, he did give details about his new pay structure.
“I asked for 80 to show and 50 to win. I said $80,000 I will go in there and I will fight Paul Felder and I don’t give a shit what happens,” revealed Al. “I never think about, when I fought Diego Sanchez, and it’s crazy to say, but it was $26,000. That’s in my head, and anything else is extra.”
Still, “Raging Al” isn’t too big on the promotion’s show and win pay structure, since your leaving your win bonus in the hands of the judges in some instances.
“The judges, there is nothing guaranteed. Show and win money is insane that they do that. You are putting your win bonus money in the judges hands. I said give me $80,000 and my bonus, if I win I get the bonus of $50,000. So that’s how I came to the number and that’s why we are where we are.”
Al says he believes he is worth more, but didn’t want to push UFC’s boundaries, though he says fighters should be getting paid more all the way around.
As for the state of the lightweight division, Al says it is still somewhat of a mess despite Khabib Nuramgomedov and Tony Ferguson set to throw down at UFC 223 for the “real” 155-pound strap. One thing is certain, though, as Al doesn’t see Conor McGregor mounting a comeback to face “The Eagle” anytime soon because doing so could be bad for his health.
As for a fight pitting himself against Khabib, Al is all for it, though he says the promotion would have to pay him $1 million before he sings on the dotted line to fight a monster like him.
“It’s business as usual. It’s more like a show, man. It doesn’t really mean anything. Someone asked me if I wanted to fight for the belt. And I still want to be the best in the world, but I don’t think the UFC belt meant what it meant. There’s interim titles, guys jumping weight classes, this and that,” he added. “the two best guys are fighting for the belt whether it’s for the real championship or not,” he said.
“I can guarantee you Conor is not coming back to fight Khabib Nurmagomedov. Guaranteed. And I don’t blame him, I wouldn’t either. You’d have to pay me $1 million dollars right now to fight that fucking guy. I don’t want to fight that fucking guy, did you see what happened to Barboza? Are you fucking nuts? You want to fight Khabib Nurmagoemdov?” he added.
“You have to pay me to fight that guy. Now if you paid me I’d go in there and freaking fight him, but, Barboza got paid 70, whatever he got paid. Get the fuck out of here, that’s silly, your nuts. The guy is like, I don’t know.”
Can’t tell if serious or….
Nevertheless, Iaquinta will look to earn his sixth straight win inside the eight-walled cage and climb further up the rankings in the hopes of one day staking his claim as the No. 1 contender to the throne.