Paul Felder Questions Al Iaquinta’s UFC Ranking

In an interview with MMA Junkie, Paul Felder questioned the official UFC ranking if Al Iaquinta, who is #10 on the lightweight rankings but has only fought twice in the last two years. Iaquinta was set for a fight with Felder at UFC 218 but was replaced by Charles Oliveira. Here are highlights:

On the ranking of Iaquinta: “I was really pissed. Iaquinta’s No. 11 (on the UFC.com list), and he’s been sitting at the top of that division for a while, and who have you beaten recently to be holding that spot? There’s a whole bunch of us busting our asses to fight guys to get that number next to our names. I think he either needs to (expletive) or get off the pot. Hang up the gloves and sell real estate, or fight.”

On Iaquinta backing out of UFC 218: “I still don’t know all the details about what he even hurt. At first I thought he was playing games again and pulled out. Does anybody know what’s hurt? Nobody has. I don’t know if it’s true or not. If he’s really hurt, then obviously I’ll eat my word. But come on, man. I don’t see him training or anything. There’s no posts. It sucks. But hey, Charles Oliveira, I’ve been watching him forever. He’s back at lightweight, and it’s a dangerous fight. Beating a guy like him gets me closer to the top 15, if not in there.”

On training for Oliveira: “His standup is very traditional Brazilian muay Thai. That’s been more fun to train for that style. As far as the standup portion of training camp, that’s been more exciting. Obviously the grappling got more intense. (But) the only way I plan on going to the ground is putting him on his ass and hitting him.”