Former UFC lightweight title challenger Al Iaquinta announced his retirement after suffering a first-round TKO loss to Bobby Green at UFC 268.
Iaquinta made the announcement on the latest episode of his podcast the Call Me Al Show and said that the entire experience against Green made him realize that it's probably time to call it quits. The 34-year old Valley Stream, New York native also revealed that he suffered an ACL tear during the fight and that he's going to focus on getting healthy from a plethora of injuries from fighting over the years and is transitioning his focus to his real estate career.
“I’m thinking that’s it, man,” Iaquinta said (h/t MMA Fighting). “That’s the way to go out. I mean, obviously, you want to go out on a win, but this sh*t’s not worth it, dude. You saw Michael Chandler and Justin Gaethje fight. Those guys, they beat the hell out of each other. That wasn’t worth it. To be honest with you, I don’t know. It was the first fight that I really gave up in. He didn’t knock me unconscious, and I kind of turned and I covered up. I was still conscious; I knew what I was doing. But I kind of just wanted out. That was it. I realized that he hit me hard – it probably was not going to be a good night for me. I was not confident in my preparation, in my cardio, my wrestling. These guys are training hard. These guys are training three times a day, two times a day, really hard. My body just can’t hold up to that anymore. That’s the first time in my career ever that I gave up in a fight."
Iaquinta finishes his career 14-7-1 as a professional mixed martial artist, going 9-6 in his 15 Octagon appearances. He also was a finalist on the fifteenth season of The Ultimate Fighter and challenged from UFC gold one time, when he faced Khabib Nurmagomedov on short notice back at UFC 223 in April 2018.
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