Al Iaquinta has headlined the past two events he’s fought at and his coach Ray Longo thinks it’s time for him to reel in the biggest fish in MMA.
Few fighters in the UFC’s lightweight division are hotter than Iaquinta right now. Having just picked up second unanimous decision win over fellow contender Kevin Lee this past Saturday at UFC on FOX 31 in Milwaukee, Iaquinta has now won six of his last seven fights with his only loss during that stretch coming via unanimous decision to Khabib Nurmagomedov. That fight, which headlined UFC 223 in April, only came about after Iaquinta was pulled from a bout with Paul Felder so that Nurmagomedov would have an opponent for a scheduled lightweight championship bout that saw two different opponents (Tony Ferguson, then Max Holloway) withdraw.