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Al Iaquinta feels Conor McGregor has gone out of control with the persona he is portraying

If there is one thing common between UFC lightweight standouts Conor McGregor and Al Iaquinta, it is sharing the Octagon with Khabib Nurmagomedov. The difference, however, is how their respective fights turned out.

Both men failed to emerge victorious against the undefeated Dagestani fighter, but Iaquinta was able to bring the fight to the distance. McGregor, however, was forced to submission in the fourth round.

And for “Ragin’ Al”, this accomplishment speaks for itself.

“I took a five-round fight on a three-round camp, and I went the distance,” Iaquinta told MMAjunkie Radio. “What’s his excuse? He looked way more tired in the third than I was in the fifth, and I didn’t train for five. That says a lot.”

“The Notorious” had been involved in social media spats as of late, targeting Tristar Gym head coach Firas Zahabi, and most recently, Khabib and boxer Paulie Malignaggi. In Iaquinta’s view, this behavior by the Irishman has gotten out of hand.

“I was a big fan, but I think he’s getting a little out of control now,” Iaquinta said. “I thought he was the guy that would kind of do what he did but stay true to the martial arts. It seemed like, in the beginning, he was really kind of like the martial arts way, do the right thing, respect your fellow competitors, ‘we’re all in this’ kind of thing.

“His goal set out to be the best, and now that he is the best and he’s got a lot of money, I just think he’s a little out of control.”

Iaquinta and his team are also looking into a fight against McGregor sometime in the future.

While UFC 232: Jones vs. Gustafsson 2 was a commercial success, the main event didn’t live up to the first between the two light heavyweights. And I suppose in retrospect, how could it? Jon and Alex took each other to the absolute limit at UFC 165, with “Bones” digging deep and snatching the win from Gustafsson in the dying minutes of round five. UFC 232 saw Gustafsson hobbled by a groin injury in the first and finished in the third.

It’s just how the fight game goes. Who knows what would happen if we ran things back for a third fight? That’s the way Alexander Gustafsson’s manager is looking at things too. In a written interview with MMA Junkie, Nima Safapour discussed his client’s future.

“The plan is to come back stronger than ever,” Safapour wrote. “The fight was the fight. We still believe 100 percent that Alex can beat Jones. Just depends on the day. Anyone can win depending on the circumstances of the fight. It was not our day, but we will come back and get the title in due time either from Jon or whoever else is holding the title at that time. Expect to see ‘The Mauler’ back in action soon.”

As for Jon Jones’ strange pulsing steroid metabolite problem? Gustafsson wasn’t shy leading up to UFC 232 when asked if he thought Jones was cheating. “Yes, I do,” he said.

“We hold the same position about Jones as it relates to the doping controversy,” Safapour wrote. “Whatever he is doing, it smells terrible.”

Jones took to social media following news that he had passed several drug tests on the night of UFC 232, as if that somehow erased the controversy of multiple positive tests leading up to the event.

”Absolutely no jet fuel was found on the murder scene,” Jones said, referencing an earlier tweet from Gustafsson. “Alex, just wanted to make sure you saw this. Seemed like that was the only thing you could focus on in our last fight.”

Well yeah, it was just one of the strangest drug testing fiascos in UFC history that resulted in the event getting moved to a different state last minute. We’re not surprised Gus was focused on it.

Maybe their next fight will go down without all the distracting drama. And it could happen sooner than you’d think. UFC 235 should tell us whether Jones can sell as many pay-per-views without a legit challenger like Gustafsson across the cage. If he can’t, we could see a third fight between the two before the end of 2019.

BJ Penn has released a statement following his loss to Ryan Hall at UFC 232.

The former lightweight and welterweight champ was coming back after a two year break from the sport, and he actually looked pretty good right up until things went horribly wrong. Hall is another up and coming killer with nasty leg locks, and he used that proficiency to get the first submission loss from Penn in his 17 year MMA career.

Hall followed a kick with a lightning fast roll right into a heel hook that had Penn tapping just 2:46 into the first round. Take a look:

Here’s Penn breaking down what happened instead for his website, BJPenn.com.

“I was shocked at how deep Ryan [Hall] was able to sink in the leg lock right off the hop,” Penn said. “The timing was perfect. I tried to run and pull my leg out, but I wasn’t going anywhere as my knee was still stuck inside his hips. So I tried to defend my knee and turn it up towards the sky. By the time I looked back he had already switched to the heel hook and my ankle just popped.”

Fortunately, Penn’s leg is still in one piece.

“It is swollen,” he revealed. “There’s some bruising and what not. But it wasn’t my knee. It was my ankle that popped. It is what it is. Hats off to Ryan Hall, that submission was the perfect storm.”

Penn went on to say he had the best training camp ever at Nova Uniao, but this time we actually believe him. Even with just half a round to review, Penn was way more aggressive and smooth with his striking than he was in his last stink fest of a fight against Dennis Siver. Maybe that was from not cutting down to 145 pounds. Maybe it was from not hating life because he was cutting down to 145. Whatever it was, this actually looked like Classic Motivated Penn™. Unfortunately, he ran into another monster. Funny how that happens to a lot of aging stars.

As for his future?

”I’m going to let my ankle heal up and then I will contemplate what is next for my life,” he said.

Just going to put this out there: after what we saw at UFC 232, I’d be down for another BJ Penn fight. Maybe just not against another Yair or Hall?