{"id":279790,"date":"2018-07-02T11:24:36","date_gmt":"2018-07-02T18:24:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=279790"},"modified":"2018-07-02T11:24:36","modified_gmt":"2018-07-02T18:24:36","slug":"al-iaquinta-explains-why-he-was-pulled-from-justin-gaethje-matchup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/al-iaquinta\/al-iaquinta-explains-why-he-was-pulled-from-justin-gaethje-matchup\/","title":{"rendered":"Al Iaquinta explains why he was pulled from Justin Gaethje matchup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Initially, Al Iaquinta was expected to battle former World Series of Fighting champ Justin Gaethje in the main event of UFC Lincoln on August 25. But then, Iaquinta was removed from the matchup without explanation, and replaced by James Vick.<\/p>\n<p>After Iaquinta was pulled from the fight, there was quite a bit of speculation as to why it happened. Given Iaquinta&#8217;s long history of butting heads with the UFC, some wondered if perhaps he&#8217;d found himself in another disagreement with the promotion \u2014 or perhaps even been given the Leslie Smith treatment and sent packing.<\/p>\n<p>Apparently, however, the reason&#8217;s for Iaquinta&#8217;s removal from the card are much less ominous than this.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/i\/events\/964202978675605505\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ariel Helwani&#8217;s MMA Show<\/a> this week, Iaquinta explained that he&#8217;s actually just dealing with a lingering injury, and that he felt a little rushed by the UFC. In his eyes, the fight didn&#8217;t make sense at this moment. Most importantly, though, he says things are currently ok between him and the UFC.<\/p>\n<p>Aaron Bronsteter explains:<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/aaronbronsteter\/status\/1013842208330604544<\/p>\n<p>Al Iaquinta has not fought since April, when he gave up a decision to the undefeated Khabib Nurmagomedov in a fight he accepted on about 24 hours notice. This is the bout that earned Nurmagomedov the UFC lightweight title.<\/p>\n<p>Iaquinta&#8217;s next most recent win occurred in April of 2017, when he knocked out Diego Sanchez in the first round, improving his win-streak to five-straight.<\/p>\n<p>Who do you want to see Al Iaquinta fight when he&#8217;s healthy enough to return to the cage?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><i>This article first appeared on\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>BJPenn.com<\/i><\/span><\/a><i>\u00a0on 7\/2\/2018. <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Initially, Al Iaquinta was expected to battle former World Series of Fighting champ Justin Gaethje in the main event of UFC Lincoln on August 25. But then, Iaquinta was removed from the matchup without explanation, and replaced by James Vick. After Iaquinta was pulled from the fight, there was quite a bit of speculation as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54430,"featured_media":276888,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10523],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.7 (Yoast SEO v19.14) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Al Iaquinta explains why he was pulled from Justin Gaethje matchup | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/al-iaquinta\/al-iaquinta-explains-why-he-was-pulled-from-justin-gaethje-matchup\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Al Iaquinta explains why he was pulled from Justin Gaethje matchup | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Initially, Al Iaquinta was expected to battle former World Series of Fighting champ Justin Gaethje in the main event of UFC Lincoln on August 25. But then, Iaquinta was removed from the matchup without explanation, and replaced by James Vick. After Iaquinta was pulled from the fight, there was quite a bit of speculation as [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/al-iaquinta\/al-iaquinta-explains-why-he-was-pulled-from-justin-gaethje-matchup\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"| BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-07-02T18:24:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/Al-Iaquinta.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"696\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"399\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tom Taylor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tom Taylor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/al-iaquinta\/al-iaquinta-explains-why-he-was-pulled-from-justin-gaethje-matchup\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/al-iaquinta\/al-iaquinta-explains-why-he-was-pulled-from-justin-gaethje-matchup\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Tom Taylor\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/e1a3f1e5a045aeaf5b59aa1549a06a87\"},\"headline\":\"Al Iaquinta explains why he was pulled from Justin Gaethje matchup\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-07-02T18:24:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-07-02T18:24:36+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/al-iaquinta\/al-iaquinta-explains-why-he-was-pulled-from-justin-gaethje-matchup\/\"},\"wordCount\":270,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Al Iaquinta\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2018\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/al-iaquinta\/al-iaquinta-explains-why-he-was-pulled-from-justin-gaethje-matchup\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/al-iaquinta\/al-iaquinta-explains-why-he-was-pulled-from-justin-gaethje-matchup\/\",\"name\":\"Al Iaquinta explains why he was pulled from Justin Gaethje matchup | BJPenn.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-07-02T18:24:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-07-02T18:24:36+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/al-iaquinta\/al-iaquinta-explains-why-he-was-pulled-from-justin-gaethje-matchup\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/al-iaquinta\/al-iaquinta-explains-why-he-was-pulled-from-justin-gaethje-matchup\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/al-iaquinta\/al-iaquinta-explains-why-he-was-pulled-from-justin-gaethje-matchup\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"MMA News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Al Iaquinta\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/al-iaquinta\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"Al Iaquinta explains why he was pulled from Justin Gaethje matchup\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\",\"name\":\"| BJPenn.com\",\"description\":\"MMA &amp; UFC News, Results &amp; Fight Videos\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\",\"name\":\"| BJPenn.com\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png\",\"width\":600,\"height\":148,\"caption\":\"| BJPenn.com\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/bjpenn\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/bjpenn\",\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/bjpenndotcom\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/0fficialbjpenn\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bjpenndotcom\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/e1a3f1e5a045aeaf5b59aa1549a06a87\",\"name\":\"Tom Taylor\",\"description\":\"Tom Taylor is a globetrotting writer currently based in Ottawa, Canada. He is a staff writer for BJPenn.com, and also covers mixed martial arts for Fightland and Vice Sports. Follow him on Twitter @TomTayMMA.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/author\/tom-taylor\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Al Iaquinta explains why he was pulled from Justin Gaethje matchup | BJPenn.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/al-iaquinta\/al-iaquinta-explains-why-he-was-pulled-from-justin-gaethje-matchup\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Al Iaquinta explains why he was pulled from Justin Gaethje matchup | BJPenn.com","og_description":"Initially, Al Iaquinta was expected to battle former World Series of Fighting champ Justin Gaethje in the main event of UFC Lincoln on August 25. But then, Iaquinta was removed from the matchup without explanation, and replaced by James Vick. After Iaquinta was pulled from the fight, there was quite a bit of speculation as [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/al-iaquinta\/al-iaquinta-explains-why-he-was-pulled-from-justin-gaethje-matchup\/","og_site_name":"| BJPenn.com","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn","article_published_time":"2018-07-02T18:24:36+00:00","og_image":[{"width":696,"height":399,"url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/Al-Iaquinta.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Tom Taylor","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@bjpenndotcom","twitter_site":"@bjpenndotcom","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Tom Taylor","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/al-iaquinta\/al-iaquinta-explains-why-he-was-pulled-from-justin-gaethje-matchup\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/al-iaquinta\/al-iaquinta-explains-why-he-was-pulled-from-justin-gaethje-matchup\/"},"author":{"name":"Tom Taylor","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/e1a3f1e5a045aeaf5b59aa1549a06a87"},"headline":"Al Iaquinta explains why he was pulled from Justin Gaethje matchup","datePublished":"2018-07-02T18:24:36+00:00","dateModified":"2018-07-02T18:24:36+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/al-iaquinta\/al-iaquinta-explains-why-he-was-pulled-from-justin-gaethje-matchup\/"},"wordCount":270,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Al Iaquinta"],"inLanguage":"en-US","copyrightYear":"2018","copyrightHolder":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization"}},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/al-iaquinta\/al-iaquinta-explains-why-he-was-pulled-from-justin-gaethje-matchup\/","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/al-iaquinta\/al-iaquinta-explains-why-he-was-pulled-from-justin-gaethje-matchup\/","name":"Al Iaquinta explains why he was pulled from Justin Gaethje matchup | BJPenn.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website"},"datePublished":"2018-07-02T18:24:36+00:00","dateModified":"2018-07-02T18:24:36+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/al-iaquinta\/al-iaquinta-explains-why-he-was-pulled-from-justin-gaethje-matchup\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/al-iaquinta\/al-iaquinta-explains-why-he-was-pulled-from-justin-gaethje-matchup\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/al-iaquinta\/al-iaquinta-explains-why-he-was-pulled-from-justin-gaethje-matchup\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"MMA News","item":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Al Iaquinta","item":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/al-iaquinta\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Al Iaquinta explains why he was pulled from Justin Gaethje matchup"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/","name":"| BJPenn.com","description":"MMA &amp; UFC News, Results &amp; Fight Videos","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization","name":"| BJPenn.com","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png","contentUrl":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png","width":600,"height":148,"caption":"| BJPenn.com"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/instagram.com\/bjpenn","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/bjpenn","https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/bjpenndotcom\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/0fficialbjpenn","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn","https:\/\/twitter.com\/bjpenndotcom"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/e1a3f1e5a045aeaf5b59aa1549a06a87","name":"Tom Taylor","description":"Tom Taylor is a globetrotting writer currently based in Ottawa, Canada. He is a staff writer for BJPenn.com, and also covers mixed martial arts for Fightland and Vice Sports. Follow him on Twitter @TomTayMMA.","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/author\/tom-taylor\/"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279790"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54430"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}