Al Iaquinta will not be facing Justin Gaethje at UFC Fight Night in Lincoln. The headliner for the UFC Lincoln event on August 25th was supposed to be a lightweight slugfest between Justin Gaethje and Al Iaquinta. However, Iaquinta has decided to pull out of a fight he originally asked for, according to Ariel Helwani of ESPN.
Justin Gaethje’s manager Ali Abdelaziz confirmed that Justin won’t be fighting Al and UFC is reportedly searching for a new opponent.
Al Iaquinta has informed the UFC that he is not fighting Justin Gaethje on the 8/25 card in Lincoln, NE, Iaquinta told @espn. Undisclosed reasons. UFC is actively looking for a replacement to fight Gaethje in the main event, sources say.
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) June 28, 2018
“Nothing but love for Al. Al is going to be Al. I like Al very much,” Abdel-Aziz said on Wednesday. “Doesn’t matter who is going to fight Justin Gaethje, they could put a chair in there against him and it’s going to be exciting.”
Most recently we saw Laquinta step up for the UFC in desperate times following the Conor McGregor bus attack. He agreed to fight Khabib Nurmagomedov in the UFC 223 main event and the fight was just as lopsided as it looked it on paper with Khabib winning 50-43 on two judges scorecards.
UFC also offered Kevin Lee to replace Al Laquinta, but Lee turned it down.
UFC offered the Justin Gaethje fight to Kevin Lee, sources say, however, I'm told Lee declined the opportunity because he wanted more time to train for his next fight. Lee is hoping to return to action later this year.
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) June 28, 2018
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