Conor McGregor said he would like to fight Al Iaquinta ‘at some stage’

While McGregor is now focused on his upcoming fight against Dustin Poirier at UFC 257, the former two-division champion made an unexpected call-out of fellow lightweight Al Iaquinta.

Conor McGregor has shockingly called for a fight with Al Iaquinta ahead of his headline bout opposite Dustin Poirier at UFC 257. ‘Raging Al’ is a strange call out considering he has lost three of his last four fights. The 33-year-old hasn’t fought since dropping to consecutive decision defeats against Dan Hooker and Donald Cerrone in 2019. Despite that, he remains in the UFC rankings and currently sits at #10 at lightweight.

Conor Mcgregor on what’s next after UFC 257

McGregor is set to return to the lightweight division at UFC 257 against Dustin Poirier and the Irishman has said it will be the start of a lengthy run at the division. If he goes out and beats Poirier, McGregor will likely fight a top-five opponent next time out. However, he says he would be open to fighting Al Iaquinta.

In a recent interview with Ariel Helwani, McGregor was asked about the differing build-up ahead of the rematch and Iaquinta’s past comments. ‘Notorious’ surprised the veteran reporter when he interrupted to call for a fight with Iaquinta.

“I would like to fight Al Iaquinta at some stage, I’d like to fight Al. I don’t know, I’d just like to fight him, I’d like to fight Al,” McGregor said to ESPN. “He hays said a few things and I actually like Al, I think he is a funny guy. Real estate agent and all, that is even funnier in its self. He has little team Longo and those guys, I would like to fight Al.”

McGregor elaborated…

“I’d like to fight them all, to be honest. I don’t care,” he said. “This is the thing with me and all these other guys. Wins and losses and all this, it means nothing to me. If you’re scheduled to fight a man and you’ve gone through build-up and there’s history and all of this. A fight is a fight and fights must take place.”

‘Notorious’ later addressed why he and Poirier have been more respectful of each other ahead of UFC 257, he said.

“As far as this one is a lot more respectful. We’re more mature me and Dustin. We’re both fathers and we have come through a lot. We are both engaged and make many philanthropic efforts. He is doing a great thing with The Good Fight Foundation. How could I not respect Dustin? One for that and two for how he handled the last loss. How he came back and rose to become a champion. That’s admirable in my book and I’m very excited to get in and compete with him.”

Conor McGregor is coming off a 40-second knockout win over Donald Cerrone at UFC 246. The fight marked his return to the sport after he was submitted by Khabib Nurmagomedov for the lightweight title at UFC 229. The Irishman scored KO wins over Eddie Alvarez and Jose Aldo to win the lightweight and featherweight titles.

Al Iaquinta, meanwhile, has not fought since UFC 243. There, he lost a decision to Dan Hooker which was his second in a row after losing to Donald Cerrone. Iaquinta does hold notable wins over Kevin Lee, Jorge Masvidal, Diego Sanchez, and Joe Lauzon. He’s also top-15 lightweight.

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