Al Iaquinta explains UFC Fight Night 63 post-fight explosion at audience

Al Iaquinta

FAIRFAX, Va. – Al Iaquinta (12-3-1 MMA, 7-2 UFC) was not happy with the way his UFC Fight Night 63  split decision victory over Jorge Masvidal (28-9 MMA, 5-2 UFC) was received by the crowd in attendance. The controversial decision was met with thunderous boos from the audience and a confused Iaquinta lashed out, swearing at the crowd while declaring, “You better not boo me.”

It’s no surprise that Iaquinta (12-3-1 MMA, 7-2 UFC) was asked about the interview during the post-fight press conference.

“You know, I train hard every day,” Iaquinta explained. “When I go in there, win or lose, I want to win, and I want the crowd to cheer. I feel like I showed a lot of heart. I pushed through a tough first round and that fight would have been ‘Fight of the Night,’ but I think he took the second round off. Third round, same thing. I was chasing him, I was overextending my punches because he was out of there. He coasted those last two rounds.

“Maybe they were booing the judges, but I don’t think there’s any reason to be booing me. I laid it all out there. I took my beating in the first round, and I came back. I think I showed a lot of what I’m made of. It hurts to hear the people booing me. I hope they weren’t booing me. I don’t know what they could be booing. Maybe just the decision, they didn’t agree with it. But, it just, it bothered me.”

While the boos come from all corners of the arena, there were two specific fans who seemed to be the ones to set Iaquinta off after they gave the lightweight the middle finger.

“I looked in the crowd and I saw two kids – I look up and I see two kids giving me the finger,” Iaquinta said. “It just kind of – it was what it was. It set me off. I saw those two little guys and I was like ‘Ah, if you were standing in here right now, what I would do to you.’ And I just got so heated. But, everybody up here, we train so hard.

“For the crowd to just throw it away, ‘Boo!’ It’s like, come on, man. I’m going to have to get used to that, I guess. It’s a tough sport and that’s the way it is.”

Iaquinta is coached by Ray Longo and former UFC welterweight champion Matt Serra, two men with plenty of experience with hostile crowds. Having that experience in the locker room may well have been integral to Iaquinta being able to reign himself in emotionally between the end of the fight and the start of the evening’s post-fight presser.

“Both Ray and Matt both said, ‘You can’t listen to the crowd,'” Iaquinta said. “They told me that I won the fight and just kind of calmed me down. It took them a little while to get through to me because I was so frustrated. They said I should be happy and I am. I worked really hard for this fight and I got what I earned.”

UFC Fight Night 63 took place at Patriot Center in Fairfax, Va. The entire card aired on FOX Sports 1.

For complete coverage of UFC Fight Night 63, check out the UFC Events section of the site.