Al Iaquinta Says Thiago Alves Pissed Him Off By Pushing For a Fight

Al Iaquinta spoke with MMAjunkie about a possible fight with Thiago Alves at UFC 205. Some highlights are below:

On Alves’ team pushing for a fight with him: “They had kept asking me for Thiago Alves for like, frickin’ six months. I said, ‘Don’t ask me about a fight. I’ll be ready when I’m ready and I’ll let you know when I’m ready.’ It was like June, July, August. Every month it was like, ‘Do you want to fight Thiago Alves?’ ‘I’m not ready. When I’m ready I’ll let you know.’ That was really annoying. I would have thought he got the point. I don’t know why he wants to fight me so bad coming off an injury. Maybe he thinks ’cause I’m coming off an injury I’m a good fight or something. He really pissed me off with this whole wanting to fight me thing. I think I really just want to hit him pretty good. He wants to fight me, I want to fight him. I’m sure he wants to fight in New York. I want to fight in New York. So let’s do it.”

On Alves calling him out: “He wanted to fight me in July and June, so it has nothing to do with New York – he just wants to fight me. I’m like, ‘Dude, I’ll be ready when I’m ready.’ I would have been ready like October, maybe the end of September. But I might as well wait until November and hope that I get on that card, then Thiago Alves will get his fight. He’ll regret it. He’s been out for just as long. Maybe that’s it. Maybe he thinks it’s a fair matchup because we’ve both been out a while? I don’t know. He’s dropping down to 155. What’s that guy doing? I don’t know what he’s doing.”

On ring rust from being off for a while: “I think I spar hard, so the ring rust thing isn’t much of a factor for me. I’m pretty calm before the fight so it doesn’t really affect me. I think I’ll just start where I left off, hopefully. I’m just excited to fight again. The whole process, it’s been a pain in the ass. I just want to fight again. That’s really it.”