Al Iaquinta knows two things. Firstly, Donald Cerrone beat him up during their fight at UFC Ottawa and secondly, he doesn’t begrudge him for it.
Speaking on the Ariel Helwani MMA Show earlier today, the New Yorker admitted the beating he’d taken during his five round war with Cowboy was one of the most painful ones he’d been a part of in his MMA career. Indeed, immediately after the fight ended, Iaquinta was taken to the hospital with multiple injuries that have only just begun to subside.
“I broke my nose, I fractured my orbital bone and had some deep bruising on my legs because of those kicks,” Iaquinta said. “[The leg kicks] was brutal. I’m just finally starting to be able to move around. It took its toll. That won’t happen again, that’s for sure.
“He hit me with a stiff jab that I don’t know if it broke my nose, it cut my nose open,” Iaquinta continued. “He hit me with a bunch of shots so it could have been any one. He did cut me open; that could’ve been the one. I think it was somewhere in the third round where he caught me in the eye, the third or the fourth round. It definitely affected my vision, and it definitely was something tough to fight through. But it is what it is. I train to be in those situations.”
Still, despite the pain, Iaquinta refuses to view Cerrone through a negative lens. Instead, he just realises Cerrone is who he is for a reason.
“I had every opportunity to win the fight, and I should’ve, but I didn’t,” Iaquinta said. “He beat the shit out of me the way a veteran gets it done. He’s good, man. He’s good.”
–
