Al Iaquinta reveals the amount he’d need to be paid to accept fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov

Al Iaquinta has finally worked out his pay gripes with the UFC – at least for the moment. He is set to return to the cage in a rescheduled bout with Paul Felder at UFC 223 on April 7.

Al Iaquinta discussed his new contract on the latest episode of The MMA Hour.

“They gave me what I wanted,” Iaquinta said (h/t MMAMania). “They gave me exactly what I asked for.”

“They gave me just enough so I don’t give a shit when I get in there,” Iaquinta continued. “I won’t be holding anything back. I’m getting paid enough to where I’m scary. When I’m in that state of mind, there’s a problem.”

“They gave me just enough to where I get in there and I don’t give a shit. I’m not tapping out to a choke like some of these guys who are getting paid a lot of money. I’m going for it.”

If Iaquinta is to take bigger fights with bigger names in the lightweight division, however, he and the UFC will likely need to return to the negotiating table. If he’s expect to face Khabib Nurmagomedov, for example, he’ll need a serious raise.

“I can guarantee you Conor [McGregor] is not coming back to fight Khabib Nurmagomedov,” Al Iaquinta said. “Guaranteed. And I don’t blame him, I wouldn’t either. You’d have to pay me $1 million dollars right now to fight that fucking guy. I don’t want to fight that fucking guy, did you see what happened to [Edson] Barboza? Are you fucking nuts? You want to fight Khabib Nurmagomedov?”

“You have to pay me to fight that guy. Now if you paid me I’d go in there and freaking fight him, but, Barboza got paid 70, whatever he got paid. Get the fuck out of here, that’s silly, your nuts. The guy is like, I don’t know.”

How do you think Al Iaquinta will look in his return to the cage?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 1/30/2018.