I våras lyckades Khabib Nurmagomedov att besegra Al Iaquinta via ett enhälligt domslut under UFC 223 och därmed stå som UFCs nya lättviktsmästare. Sedan förlusten har inte Iaquinta gått några fler matcher men nyligen stod det klart att han härnäst kommer att ta sig an Kevin Lee. Matchen kommer att bli den andra mellan Iaquinta och Lee då de två möttes i februari 2014, Iaquinta stod då som segrare via enhälligt domslut.
I samband med den gångna galan UFC 230 ställde Iaquinta upp på en intervju med MMAFighting där han bland annat nämner att han ser Lee som en potentiellt tuffare motståndare än Nurmagomedov. Iaquinta nämnde även varför han accepterade returmatchen mot Lee istället för att acceptera en match mot Justin Gaethje, som även han har utmanat Iaquinta.
Everything was correct about this and nothing was correct about the last one. It was like injuries, coming off that Khabib fight I was still banged up. It was quick. I wasn’t happy with a few other things. It just wasn’t right. This is definitely a better fight. I think it’s an intriguing matchup. Just everything. Everything about it, I like. He’s just as tough, if not tougher than Gaethje. He might even be just as tough, if not tougher than Khabib. I was sitting front row at his last fight with Edson Barboza and I was like, ‘Fuck, I don’t want to be Barboza right now.’ It was brutal, it was not fun to watch. So, I’m training my ass off. I want to be the one doing that to him, for sure.
Trots att Iaquinta stod som segrare i deras förra möte så berättar han att han inte underskattar Lee utan att han snarare ser Lee som en tydligt förbättrad fighter.
He’s definitely bigger and stronger. More mature as a fighter, probably less mature as a person. He’s polished, he’s seasoned. Now he’s been in there with really tough guys. He was cocky when he came into the UFC, he kind of thought that he was gonna run through everything. I definitely humbled him there and he changed his life. He moved to Vegas, he switched camps. I think I’ve been in the guy’s head for a while and he’s been looking forward to this. There’s two kind of ways this goes. He’s definitely put in the work — he’s all in. A guy willing to move to Las Vegas, because he thinks it’s a better team there is definitely serious. He’s coming to put it on me, I know that for sure.
Lee och Iaquinta kommer att mötas under UFC on FOX 31 som äger rum den 15:e december i Milwaukee, USA.
