Al Iaquinta wants July matchup with Beneil Dariush
Despite not fighting on last Saturday's FOX UFC Fight Night card, lightweight Al Iaquinta still made his presence felt. Several of his Matt Serra/Ray Longo teammates lovingly mimmicked the "Raging" slugger's angry, post-fight comments from a few weeks ago directed at fans wrongly booing him, after their own wins in New Jersey. UFC Tonight reports that now, Iaquinta wants to take on one of Saturday's stars, Beneil Dariush, next.
According to Dariush's manager Ali Abdel-Aziz, Dariush's team likes the fight with Iaquinta as well. Dariush scored the biggest win of his career, Saturday, with a unanimous decision over long-time top contender Jim Miller.
Dariush used superb grappling to control and threaten Miller with ground position and submission attempts. The victory extended his win streak to four straight.
Iaquinta is also riding a four fight win streak, with his most recent win being a close split-decision victory over Jorge Masvidal at Fight Night Fairfax. According to the report, Iaquinta is interested in fighting Dariush at either the July 15 card in San Diego, or at the July 11 UFC 189 pay-per-view event.
The fight would be a potentially interesting clash of styles. Iaquinta is known for his wrestling but has become a dangerous knockout puncher in recent years.
For his part, Dariush is a prodigious Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioner with excellent takedowns but who, recently, has also looked remarkably capable and improved with his stand-up striking. We'll keep you abreast of developments in this story as they occur.
