It wasn’t a definitive retirement announcement, but a dejected [autotag]Al Iaquinta[/autotag] made it clear Thursday night that hanging up his gloves for good has weighed heavily on his mind since UFC 268.
Iaquinta, fighting for the first time in two years, suffered a first-round TKO against Bobby Green on Nov. 6 for his third consecutive loss. Iaquinta also revealed on his “Call Me Al Show” that he at least partially tore his ACL during the fight.
Everything – from the way he feels physically to his performance at UFC 268 – has Iaquinta, 34, giving serious consideration to calling it a career.
“Fighting again? I’m thinking that’s it, man. I’m thinking that’s it,” Iaquinta said. “That’s the way to go out. Obviously you want to go out on a win, but this sh*t’s not worth it. You saw Michael Chandler and Justin Gaethje fight (at UFC 268). Those guys, they beat the hell out of each other. That wasn’t worth it.”
What’s more is what Iaquinta (14-7-1 MMA, 9-5 UFC) realized about his mental state during the fight-ending sequence with Green.
“To be honest with you, I don’t know, it was the first fight that I really gave up in,” Iaquinta said. “He didn’t knock me unconscious. I turned, and I covered up. I was still conscious, I knew what I was doing, but I kind of just wanted out. I realized he hit me hard, and it probably wasn’t gonna be a good night for me. I was not confident in my preparation. …
“It’s the first time in my career ever that I gave up in a fight. I used to watch people do that all the time, and I could never understand it. But at this point, it’s not life-changing money for me to go in there. When you’re younger, injuries happen and you heal. I’m 34 years old. You go in there, you get an injury, there’s a good shot it’s never gonna heal. Doctors, I used to think you get surgery, and they fix it. Doctors can fix anything. I don’t ever want to have surgery again.”
It’s not just his in-fight thoughts that have Iaquinta contemplating retirement, but also his approach leading into it.
“This is the first time in my career I was leading up to it thinking, ‘I just don’t want to get hurt,'” Iaquinta said. “You can’t have that attitude going into it. You’ve got to be a savage motherf*cker to really get in that cage. The mindset you’ve got to have is, ‘I don’t give a sh*t about my body.’ Back in the day, I could’ve broken my nose, anything, and I would’ve kept going. Now? Eh, I live in a nice house, I got investment properties, (the UFC) is not paying me enough to sacrifice my body for the rest of my life. That’s the way I kind of feel about it.”
Iaquinta made his professional MMA debut in February 2009. His big break came in 2012 when he was a contestant on “The Ultimate Fighter 15.” Although he lost to Michael Chiesa in the lightweight final, he was still signed to the UFC and officially made his promotional debut in August 2013.
Iaquinta was 8-1 in the promotion and on a five-fight winning streak when he got an unexpected last-minute opportunity to fight Khabib Nurmagomedov for the vacant lightweight title in April 2018 at UFC 223. Iaquinta was dominated in the fight and lost by clean-sweep unanimous decision.
Iaquinta said on his show that he’s “crushing the real estate game” and plans to pour all his energy into his work, but he left the door open to potentially fight again.
“I start feeling good? I don’t know. You know what I mean? I might get that itch,” Iaquinta said. “I can’t even watch my teammates. I don’t even want to go to the gym right now. I’m just like, so, like, I don’t know if I’m jealous of them being able to do that, being able to train hard. That’s where I feel the most at home, and I don’t know if it’s gonna happen anytime soon for me.”
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