Long Island’s Al Iaquinta is hoping to return to action in January.
And the Serra-Longo fighter has lightweight Beneil Dariush in his crosshairs.
On Wednesday’s edition of UFC Tonight it was reported that Iaquinta visited with his doctor in Los Angeles, who advised him to forego corrective surgery on his right knee. Instead the 28-year old Iaquinta will instead do approximately six weeks of stem cell injections and complete a course of physical therapy to get ready for his next fight.
Iaquinta, who was scheduled to face Gilbert Melendez at UFC Fight Night 71 in June, has been dealing with a lingering knee issue. When Melendez was forced out of the fight with a failed drug test, Iaquinta opted to have his knee evaluated. His doctor advised him to forego surgery, due to having very little cartilage left in his right knee.
After he’s gone through physical therapy, Iaquinta is hoping to fight Dariush upon his return. And according to UFC Tonight, Dariush’s management team, Dominance MMA, said that they like that idea as well.
Iaquinta has won four straight fights dating back to Sept. 14, when he scored a TKO victory over Rodrigo Damm. He won his last fight over Jorge Masvidal via a controversial split decision at UFC Fight Night 63 in April.
Dariush, meanwhile, is coming off a controversial split-decision victory over Michael Johnson at UFC Fight Night 73 on Aug. 8. He has won five fights in a row, and has gone 6-1 in the UFC since debuting against Charlie Brenneman in early 2014.