It is no secret that lightweight fighter Al Iaquinta is not exactly on great terms with the UFC right now, especially after the tirade the fighter went on after UFC Fight Night 108.
Iaquinta was one of many fighters to attend the UFC fighter retreat and the fighter made one poignant observation -- one of the UFC’s newest owners in Ari Emanuel is never going to be “one of the boys.”
“I think (UFC co-owner) Ari Emanuel, he was trying to be one of us, but he’ll never be one of us,” Iaquinta told MMA Junkie. “He was walking around trying to hang out with everybody, which was cool to see that, but he’s just not one of us. It’s not going to happen.”
At UFC Fight Night 108, a returning Iaquinta defeated Diego Sanchez by first round knockout.
The fighter also left the fighter retreat knowing that there was a weird atmosphere surrounding the whole weekend.
“It was a weird atmosphere, having all these fighters and these guys like Kobe Bryant and Michael Strahan talking to everybody about investments and stuff like that. We’re not making anywhere near the money they’re making, so anything they were saying went right over everyone’s head,” says Iaquinta.
Even though the New York native doesn’t have another fight scheduled at the moment, call outs of Tony Ferguson have become more frequent.
