Al Iaquinta was ‘Raging’ last month after he was overlooked for a bonus award following his KO victory over Diego Sanchez at UFC Fight Night 108, but according to an unnamed UFC official the outspoken star should have known he wasn’t eligible for one.
In fact, it was Iaquinta himself who revealed to FOX Sports in November of last year that the UFC had handed him a three-fight ban from receiving bonuses back in 2015 after having committed a trio of punishable offenses prior to that, including trashing a hotel room, cursing on live TV and deliberately skipping a UFC fighter summit.
Since Iaquinta had been on a self-imposed exile from the UFC, his return to action last month counted as only the first fight of his exemption from receiving bonuses, with the $50,000 ‘Performance Of The Night’ awards that night instead going to Mike Perry and Brandon Moreno instead.
Iaquinta has repeatedly put the UFC on blast since that event, even going as far as to demand that they cut him, but while they have stopped short of doing that so far, but the official was keen to set the record straight on a number of matters.
Beyond the bonus situation, one issue that appeared to particularly perturb the anonymous official that Iaquinta has repeatedly stated that he had to “beg” the UFC to get them to cover the cost of a knee surgery he needed.
“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,” the UFC official explained to MMAjunkie. “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 (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.”
