Lightweight contender Al Iaquinta hasn’t been on the best of terms with the UFC for quite some time now.
Recently, the fighter went on a tirade against the promotion and those who compete inside of it, including the dropping of an F bomb towards the UFC.
In an interview with MMA Junkie, an unnamed UFC official revealed that Iaquinta is still on a bonus ban for prior incidents against the promotion.
“His story about the summit, the part that he left out was that he never called us to tell us he didn’t get on the plane,” the UFC official said. “He never called us to tell us not to send a car to the airport to pick him up. We had all these arrangements for the hotel. All these things were arranged, and he never bothered to call us to tell us he wasn’t coming, which I think would make anyone mad. We sent a car to the airport to pick him up, and he wasn’t there. He never called us to say, ‘I’m not coming.’ Not calling us, not telling us that he wasn’t going to show up, having to send a car to the airport to pick him up, literally, and him not being there – how immature is that? To not call and say, ‘I didn’t make the flight. I’m not coming.’ It’s immature.”
Before returning at UFC Fight Night 108, the New York native had been out of action due to his issues with the UFC and a knee surgery.
Iaquinta had been telling people that the UFC refused to pay for a much needed knee surgery awhile back, something the UFC official says is untrue.
“It was a chronic injury, and since it was a chronic injury and not something that happened while training or fighting for us, the insurance denied it,” a UFC official said. “There were also a number of alternatives that could have been done that would have been covered, but Al insisted on using a specific surgeon back east. The UFC paid tens of thousands of dollars to cover that out of our pocket without any obligation to do so since it was a chronic injury, which means it happened over years and years and years. Mr. Iaquinta never once called the medical team or (UFC President) Dana (White) to say thank you. Instead, he talks about how he had to beg for it, which is not true. … We agreed to do it. We paid for it. The entire medical team assisted through his surgeon getting this done and getting it paid, and Al never once called anyone to thank them. Instead he goes out on the Internet and says he had to beg for it, which is absolutely, 100 percent false. That’s a lie.”
It seems like for now, the relationship between fighter and promotion has a long way to go before a healing happens.
