Al Iaquinta scored his fourth straight win as he won a close split decision against Jorge Masvidal in the co-main event of UFC Fight Night 63 on Saturday afternoon in Virginia.
While a majority of the MMA media scored the fight for Masvidal, two of the three judges scored the fight for Iaquinta.
Following the announcement of the decision, the fans in attendance at the Patriot Center were booing the decision as UFC play by play announcer Jon Anik was attempting to do a post fight interview with Iaquinta.
“Are you guys booing me,” Iaquinta said in the octagon following his victory. “You better not boo me. I f–king fought my ass off. F–k you. I fought my ass off tonight.”
After the event was over, Iaquinta was asked about the interview in the octagon during the post fight press conference. He started off by explaining that he felt Masvidal coasted the final two rounds after taking it to him in the first round and he had to chase him in the final two rounds.
“I train hard everyday and when I go in there, win or lose, I want to win and the crowd to cheer,” Iaquinta said. “I feel like I showed a lot of heart and pushed through a tough first round. That fight would have been fight of the night, but I think he took the second round off. The third round, the same thing. I was just chasing him and over extending my punches because he was out of there. He coasted those last two rounds.”
When it came to the booing from the fans in attendance at UFC Fight Night 63, Iaquinta said he saw two kids in the audience giving him the finger and that set him off.
“Maybe they were booing the judges, but I do not think there is any reason to be booing me,” he explained. “I laid it all out there. I took my beating in the first round and I came back. I showed a lot of what I am made of. It definitely hurts to hear the people booing you. I hope they were not booing me for that. I do not know what they could be booing — just the decision, maybe they did not agree with it. It bothered me. I looked into the crowd and I see two kids giving me the finger. It set me off. I got so heated and everyone up here, we train so hard and for the crowd to just throw it away, boo. It’s like come on man. I am going to have to get use to it I guess. It’s a tough sport and that is the way it is.”
Iaquinta is coached by Ray Longo and Matt Serra, who were both in his corner on Saturday. Both of them told Iaquinta that he can not listen to what the audience says and he eventually calmed down.
“Both Ray and Matt both said you can not listen to the crowd,” he 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 you should be happy and I am. I worked really hard for this fight and I got what I earned.”
Iaquinta entered this fight as the number fifteen contender in the UFC lightweight rankings and he could potentially get someone in the top ten in his next fight.