Al Iaquinta’s post-fight fury following his closely contested split decision victory over Jorge Masvidal at UFC Fight Night 63 has set the MMA world ablaze with controversy. ‘Raging’ Al erupted with a tirade of abuse targeted at the booing Fairfax, Virginia locals, yelling down the microphone:
“Are you booing me?! You better not boo me! I f-cking fought my ass off! F-ck you!”, Iaquinta snapped to the crowd.
It appeared at first that the Patriot Center attendees were scorning the judges, but the arena bellowed with further outrage when Iaquinta asked if they were booing him.
One man who’s all too familiar with the heightened emotions accompanied with Octagon combat is Forrest Griffin. The former light-heavyweight champ stormed out of the arena following his devastating loss to Anderson Silva at UFC 101 in 2009. Griffin examined Iaquinta’s post-fight interview while visiting Poland for the recent UFC Krakow card:
“We’re not that basement thing, we are mainstream now. You can’t cuss on TV. It does hurt your brand if you do stuff like that. That’s not what blue chip sponsors are looking for”, Griffin told USA Sports today.
While such foul language on live TV could hinder the UFC’s growth as a professional sporting promotion, the organization seemed to promote Al’s enraged rant on their YouTube channel.
Check out the original article, to hear a host of UFC fighters evaluate Al Iaquinta’s post-fight antics.
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