Justin Gaethje has been on a bigtime roll, and quickly took out Edson Barboza in his last outing, but evidently Al Iaquinta wasn’t too impressed.
Iaquinta and Gaethje have been trading verbal jabs through the media for some time now, but the lightweight contenders have yet to throw hands in the cage. As a result, prior to Iaquinta’s bout tonight with Donald Cerrone, he had this to say about Gaethje’s recent win (quote via MMA Junkie):
“He poked (Edson) Barboza in the eye (at UFC on ESPN 2 in March), no one ever said anything about that,” Iaquinta said. “He poked him right in the eye, he thinks – put a technical battle – he better come crazy. This technical stuff, he’ll be just technical enough to get his ass kicked, for sure.”
There is some evidence that an eye poke played a role in Barboza’s quick loss to Gaethje. Now, does that mean Gaethje isn’t ridiculously tough and explosive? No. No, it doesn’t.
All that aside, it will be really interesting to see if Iaquinta and Gaethje eventually meet up in the cage. If Iaquinta gets by Cerrone tonight, then the chances of that happening in the foreseeable future will increase dramatically.
Prior to tonight’s card, Gaethje is ranked #5 in the UFC’s lightweight division and Iaquinta is #4. So, depending on what comes next for either Tony Ferguson or Conor McGregor, Gaethje – Iaquinta could materialize.
First things first, however, and that’s defeating Cerrone, one of the most experienced and dangerous fighters on the UFC roster. Cerrone – Iaquinta will headline UFC Ottawa.