Over the last couple of days, Al Iaquinta and Tony Ferguson have been going at in on social media. The pair’s beef began when Ferguson used Iaquinta’s standing in the UFC lightweight division as a way to delegitimize Khabib Nurmagomedov’s UFC 223 title win.
On a recent episode of Submission Radio, Iaquinta explained why he engaged Ferguson on social media.
“I was just like, dude, shut the f**k up,” said Iaquinta (transcribed by Jed Meshew for MMAFighting). “Who is that guy to say anything? He had his title shot and he freaking blew it. He tripped on a wire. That’s like, nature’s weeding you out. You’re being weeded out. You’re like a kid. Kids trip over things. Adults, like, you’re a professional athlete and you can’t not trip over a wire? And then you’re [talking trash]? Disappear for a while. You’re a f**king idiot, you know what I mean?
“If that happened to me, if I had to pull out of a title fight because I tripped over a wire, you’re not hearing me talk shit on Twitter at all. I’m gonna hide somewhere, I’m not gonna act tough. He’s acting tough. Right now, a middle school kid could kick the s**t out of him right now because he can’t do anything. You can’t talk s**t when you’re in the state that you’re in. That guy is so weird. He’s so weird.”
Al Iaquinta then continued, giving his take on Ferguson’s character. Safe to say he pulled no punches.
“Who cares about that guy?” Iaquinta said. “He’s really just good at fighting and that’s it. If it wasn’t for fighting, he’d be like a worthless person. There’s no point to Tony Ferguson besides people beating his ass. He gets dropped every fight and he’s out of his mind. People like watching get his ass kicked and come back and win. That’s the only thing that Tony Ferguson is good at in the world. No one likes personality, he’s a weird dude. Like, I don’t even know what’s the point in that guy? There’s no point. Just go away. You tripped on a wire and I got the title shot, now you’re gonna come at me? I’ve fought with worse injuries than that, guaranteed, in my career. You get to fight week, you’re fighting. You don’t pull out of a fight during fight week. Don’t come after me cause I took advantage of a situation that he couldn’t capitalize on. How many fights in a row has he won? 10 fights? And he still hasn’t fought for a title? Like, there’s a reason for that. No one likes you. Go away.”
What do you make of this beef between Al Iaquinta and Tony Ferguson?
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 4/27/2018.