Al Iaquinta has conflicting views about Conor McGregor’s controversial antics at Bellator 187.
UFC lightweight contender Al Iaquinta is the latest fighter to give his take on Conor McGregor’s wild celebration at Bellator 187, and the New Yorker isn’t quite sure where he stands.
On the one hand, Iaquinta, who has been relatively inactive in the UFC for the past two years, thinks someone should have ‘cold clocked’ McGregor for what many fans have condemned as reckless behavior at Dublin’s 3Arena. ‘The Notorious’ shoved referee Marc Goddard and slapped a Bellator official during his wild frenzy with teammate Charlie Ward, who won his middleweight bout against John Redmond via first-round KO.
“Did you see what Conor McGregor just did? He took over Bellator and like went crazy.” Iaquinta told Chris Taylor of BJPenn.com in a recent interview. “It seems like that guy, I don’t know. I feel like somebody should have just cold clocked him and give him a wake up call, dude, you know.”
But, on the other hand, ‘Raging Al’ believes McGregor has earned the status to do whatever he wants.
“But I mean, yeah, all the power to him I guess,” Iaquinta continued. “I would love to be the guy running around making a mockery of everybody, but hopefully I wouldn’t do that if I was in that power. I don’t know. If it’s good for him. F**k, why not? Do whatever you want. You’ve got enough money. If that’s how you wanna act, by all means, go right ahead. But yeah, I think he can do whatever he wants. I think he’s got the ball in his court as far as that goes. He doesn’t need to fight if he doesn’t want to. I think he’s made the most of his opportunities.
The Irishman went ten rounds with pound-for-pound boxing great Floyd Mayweather Jr. this past August, losing via 10th-round TKO, and has promised to return to the UFC to defend his lightweight title and ‘legitimize’ the rankings.
It’s expected that McGregor, 29, will defend the belt against interim champ Tony Ferguson in a title unification bout, and Iaquinta thinks it’s the ‘toughest’ match-up for him.
“He’s been very lucky in the match ups he’s gotten, but he’s had the skill to back up his talk,” Iaquinta said. “He’s gotten these opportunities and he’s had the skill to back it up. But, now I think he’s looking at guys like Tony Ferguson. I think that’s probably the toughest fight for him.”
Iaquinta, 30, is on a five-fight win streak and last fought at UFC Fight Night 108, where he knocked out MMA veteran Diego Sanchez in the first round. The Serra-Longo product was expected to collide with Paul Felder next month at UFC 218 but was forced to pull out due to injury.
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