Tag: UFC Lincoln

Justin Gaethje Says He’ll Retire if James Vick Outclasses Him

Justin Gaethje wouldn’t be happy if James Vick has his way at UFC Lincoln. Gaethje and Vick are set to clash in the main event of UFC Lincoln on Aug. 25. Gaethje was originally set to meet Al Iaquinta, but “Raging” was forced to pull …

Justin Gaethje wouldn’t be happy if James Vick has his way at UFC Lincoln. Gaethje and Vick are set to clash in the main event of UFC Lincoln on Aug. 25. Gaethje was originally set to meet Al Iaquinta, but “Raging” was forced to pull out due to nagging injuries. Vick, who was scheduled to […]

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Justin Gaethje Will Retire With Bad Loss To James Vick

Justin Gaethje is putting quite a bit of pressure on himself.

The post Justin Gaethje Will Retire With Bad Loss To James Vick appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

UFC Lincoln has their main event, for the time being anyway.

The No. 7-ranked Justin ‘The Highlight’ Gaethje was left without an opponent when would-be suitor Al Iaquinta pulled out of the main event with little warning last week.

In stepped surging lightweight James Vick, who was scheduled to fight Paul Felder at July’s UFC Boise. Vick has won nine of his last 10 fights and is riding a four-fight win streak. ‘The Texecutioner’ has let it be known he doesn’t run from fights, albeit his mouth is a different story.

“He talks a lot of **** and I have no respect for him,” Gaethje said on the most recent episode of The Ariel Helwani MMA Show.

“He’s never fought a Michael Johnson, Eddie Alvarez or a Dustin Poirier. He can call me whatever he wants, but I fought the best of the best my first three fights in UFC. This is my third of four fights being the main event.” Gaethje continued, “When he wants to talk about levels, those are the levels he needs to talk about, and he’s not on my level.”

Gaethje is generally an easygoing combatant, having the utmost respect for his last two opponents Eddie Alvarez and Dustin Poirier.

Conversely, ‘The Highlight’ believes Vick to be a lowlife and wants to bring his signature style of violence to the Lincoln faithful.

“I’m not invincible, I know I am not. Some guys like to go in there with the utmost confidence in themselves and I know that this sport is unforgiving, and I can run into a knee, but, I am going to clean his clock,” Gaethje said. “I will not be content if he does not see his feet for at least one minute, after I land a huge right hand on him. I won’t be satisfied unless he’s out cold.”

Gaethje is no longer searching for his equal, having lost his last two fights inside the octagon, ‘The Highlight’ is well aware that he isn’t invincible. But he will be damned if he gets outdone by Vick.

“I’m so much better than James Vick. It sucks to say it, but if I was to go out there and get outclassed by James Vick, I’d have to hang them up,” Gaethje explained.

“I’m talking if I go out and get outclassed. If he outclasses me and beats me in every aspect of this game, then yeah, something is not good.”

As far as what constitutes being outclassed, that’s subjective. When pressed about his comments, Gaethje further detailed a quick knockout wouldn’t be enough to consider being outclassed.

“I’m not saying, I don’t know, you know how this game works and we fly high on emotions. Everything you get from us is coming from a[n] emotional aspect. Like I said, if I was to run into a knee and get knocked out, no that’s not what, if he outclasses me then I would be so disappointed in myself.”

UFC Fight Night Lincoln takes place Saturday, August 25th, live on FS1.

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Anthony Smith Can’t Seem to Find UFC Lincoln Opponent

Anthony Smith can’t find a dance partner for UFC Lincoln. Smith is coming off a first-round knockout victory over former UFC light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans. The bout took place earlier this month inside the United Center in Chicago, Illi…

Anthony Smith can’t find a dance partner for UFC Lincoln. Smith is coming off a first-round knockout victory over former UFC light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans. The bout took place earlier this month inside the United Center in Chicago, Illinois. It was featured on the UFC Fight Pass portion of UFC 225. Evans retired shortly […]

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Al Iaquinta Goes Off On Haters After UFC Lincoln Fiasco

Does Al Iaquinta deserve all of this hate?

The post Al Iaquinta Goes Off On Haters After UFC Lincoln Fiasco appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Late last night, the UFC lost one of its most exciting match-ups from this summer when lightweight Al Iaquinta announced his reported fight against fan favorite Justin Gaethje was not happening at August 25’s UFC Lincoln.

Speculation ran rampant about the fight, which was officially announced by the UFC this week but apparently not actually there according to Iaquinta, who has long been at odds with the UFC, something that has been well-documented by his highly-publicized tirade against his employers of late.

So the fight seemed official, but Iaquinta made waves by announcing the fight was actually not happening in response to a fan asking on Twitter last night:

‘Ragin’ Al’ then lived up to his namesake when Gaethje said he knew he would ‘bitch out,’ claiming “The Highlight” would be brain dead and broke in two years.

When a fan pointed out to him he perhaps shouldn’t call Gaethje a bitch when he was the one not fighting, Iaquinta claimed it everyone else who had back out perhaps suggesting it was the UFC who wouldn’t meet his demands for the bout:

Iaquinta didn’t stop there, however, continuing the online battle with his critics today after a comment posed the question if he should just go back to real estate if he didn’t really want to fight:

Responding to the same ‘fan,’ Iaquinta admitted that selling houses was what he was doing right now and made the most sense:

Finally, Iaquinta blew up at a comment that deemed his trashing of Gaethje hypocritical, as saying he would fight anyone wasn’t really a characteristic of a ‘b***h’:

The post Al Iaquinta Goes Off On Haters After UFC Lincoln Fiasco appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Al Iaquinta Out Of Fight Against Justin Gaethje At UFC Lincoln, Replacement Named

It turns out that Al Iaquinta won’t be fighting Justin Gaethje at UFC Lincoln.

The post Al Iaquinta Out Of Fight Against Justin Gaethje At UFC Lincoln, Replacement Named appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

It turns out that Al Iaquinta won’t be fighting Justin Gaethje at UFC Lincoln.

Despite the fact that the UFC officially announced the fight earlier this month, it will not happen.

Iaquinta is coming off the biggest fight thus far in his pro-MMA career as he agreed to step in on 24 hours notice and fight Khabib Nurmagomedov in the main event of the UFC 223 pay-per-view event after the promotion was seeking a replacement for both Tony Ferguson and Max Holloway. Khabib ended up winning the fight by decision along with the undisputed UFC lightweight title.

When asked by MMAJunkie about the fight, Iaquinta stayed vague with his response after the news was made ESPN.com’s Ariel Helwani.

“The only comment I have is that you will have to ask Justin if the fight is happening or not,” Iaquinta said. He then followed up with: “I’m glad I’m not in a position here where I have to take fights under any condition like these other guys.”

This leads us to  Gaethje’s manager, Ali Abdelaziz, telling MMAJunkie that Iaquinta will not be fighting Gaethje in the lightweight main event.

“I have a lot of respect for Al because he fought Khabib (Nurmagomedov) on like an hour notice (at UFC 223), so I can’t talk nothing bad about him,” Abdelaziz told MMAjunkie. “I’m not questioning his heart, but I don’t know what he’s going through. I hope he’s OK.

“I don’t know if he tried to get more money, but fighting Justin Gaethje is a tall order. If I’m a fighter, you have to pay me $1 million to fight Justin. And if he thinks he deserves more money to fight Justin, I can’t fight. It’s not personal. I know Justin is a little bit upset, but for me it’s OK. Whoever Justin is going to be fighting, it’s going to be an exciting fight. If you’re going to put a chair in the octagon, it’s going to be exciting.”

“I think Al is a really good fighter – I think he’s a top-five fighter,” Abdelaziz said. “I think it was going to be a great fight, but now there’s no fight. … When you sign to fight Al, sometimes he’s going to fight, and sometimes he’s going to show up and fight you out of nowhere like when he showed up to fight Khabib. He’s an unpredictable guy. I personally love Al. I think he’s a good guy.”

Gaethje is coming off a tough loss. Back in the main event of the UFC on FOX 29 show (April 14, 2018) that took place at the Gila River Arena in Glendale, Arizona, Dustin Poirier picked up a TKO win in the fourth round over the former WSOF champion. Gaethje looks to snap a two-fight skid as he lost to Eddie Alvarez before his previous fight.

The promotion has officially announced that James Vick will step in for Iaquinta to fight Gaethje at this event.

UFC Lincoln is set to take place on August 25, 2018 at Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska.

The main card will air on FOX Sports 1 while the preliminary card will be split broadcasted on FOX Sports 1 and the promotion’s streaming service, UFC Fight Pass.

The promotion will be announcing more bouts for this event in the coming weeks. Here is the updated card:

Justin Gaethje vs. James Vick
Deiveson Figueiredo vs. John Moraga
Angela Hill vs. Alexa Grasso
Antonio Braga Neto vs. Andrew Sanchez
Eryk Anders vs. Tim Williams
Drew Dober vs. Jon Tuck
Luke Sanders vs. Rani Yahya

The post Al Iaquinta Out Of Fight Against Justin Gaethje At UFC Lincoln, Replacement Named appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

John Moraga vs. Deiveson Figueiredo Set For UFC Lincoln

UFC Lincoln has just gained quite an interesting flyweight match-up. MMA Fighting reports that a 125-pound bout between John Moraga and Deiveson Figueiredo is set for the August 25th Pinnacle Bank Arena event. The show will be headlined by a lightweigh…

UFC Lincoln has just gained quite an interesting flyweight match-up. MMA Fighting reports that a 125-pound bout between John Moraga and Deiveson Figueiredo is set for the August 25th Pinnacle Bank Arena event. The show will be headlined by a lightweight bout between Justin Gaethje and Al Iaquinta. Moraga is on a three fight win streak with his latest […]

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