Al Iaquinta: 'I can't fight for this purse'
Al Iaquinta discusses the idea of walking away from the UFC due to issues with fighter pay, rather than competing at UFC 205.
Fighter pay and the finances behind the scenes at the UFC is set to be one of the biggest stories of 2016. Fighter after fighter continues to complain about the amount of money they’ve lost due to the Reebok deal or the lack of compensation they’ve experienced while competing on the biggest stage in mixed martial arts. Lightweight competitor Al Iaquinta is the latest name to be added to the list of upset fighters and he may be done with the UFC for good.
Iaquinta was set to fight Thiago Alves at UFC 205 – the first UFC event in Madison Square Garden – but the New York native decided to walk away from the fight. The 12-3 fighter spoke to Ariel Helwani on this week’s edition of The MMA Hour to address this development.
“There’s a lot things that have changed since I signed the contract, and for me to go in there and risk my health, risk everything that you risk when you go into a cage fight, I just said, ‘look, I can’t do it,'” Iaquinta said while speaking to Helwani. “‘We’ve got to ask for more money. Maybe we can negotiate something.’ My manager told me there’s probably not a good chance of that happening, so I said, ‘you know what, I can’t do it. Financially, I can’t fight for this purse.’
The last time Iaquinta stepped into the Octagon was at UFC Fight Night 63, where he earned a controversial split decision over Jorge Masvidal. For that tough bout he was paid $46,000 ($23,000 to show and $23,000 to win). Iaquinta was unwilling to step back into the Octagon for that same amount. That fight was the first in Iaquinta’s new four-fight contract and his first as a part of the new UFC-Reebok deal where he sits in the $5,000 payout per fight.
“If I win the fight and they take taxes out and I pay my trainers, I make okay money. Okay. For fighting in a cage,” Iaquinta said during the interview. “God forbid, I don’t win the fight, (after) taxes, trainers, all the expenses, everything that goes into a training camp, I’m basically fighting at Madison Square Garden for free. It’s just unreasonable. So I asked him to reach out to the UFC, and from what he tells me there was no consideration of a negotiation whatsoever.”
To make this situation even worse, Iaquinta used this time to repair a serious knee injury which led to another dispute with the UFC. According to Iaquinta, he wanted to have the surgery corrected but the UFC insisted on using stem cell injections which did not heal the damage. Even though the UFC eventually covered the full cost of the procedure, Iaquinta turned to real estate to help earn money while being away from the cage.
“God forbid, I take this fight, $26,000, I win, I lose, whatever happens. Say I get hurt somehow, I got nothing. I’d have to take off time from my clients; I’d have to take off time with the real estate that I’m learning. I kind of got myself in a groove,” Iaquinta said. “To stop that, to take a fight where I could be risking everything, it’s just not worth it for the amount of money that they’re going to pay me.”
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