Al Iaquinta’s Coach Was Shocked About One Thing Heading Into Kevin Lee Rematch

Al Iaquinta’s coach has made one thing known that he thought was odd about the headliner of the UFC on FOX 31 event. That was the fact of Iqauninta being an underdog against Kevin Lee. In fact, Ray Longo believed that Iaquinta should’ve received a little more credit. Due to his fight that took place before this event.

Lee suffered a unanimous decision loss to Iaquinta in the UFC on FOX 31 headliner.  The longtime MMA coach stated that was shocked by the fact that the betting odds had Lee has the favorited heading into this rematch. In his eyes, it was beyond him as to why people doubted Iaquinta.

“Why you would make Lee the favorite is beyond me,” Longo told MMAjunkie Radio.

Motivation

And there’s a good reason for having such a mindset due to the fact that he went five rounds against UFC lightweight champ Khabib Nurmagomedov. The positive news coming out of that fight was it gave Al confidence. Simple yet motivation that he could fight anyone including the level that Khabib brings into a fight.

“I think it gave him the confidence that, if he can go five rounds with a guy like that. Now he’s going to train for five rounds, his cardio would be off the charts. And it really was.”

“I really took that Khabib fight as a huge plus. I didn’t take one negative thought out of that fight. I really don’t believe people can really grasp what was happening there. He was not training for a five-round fight. He didn’t do any wrestling for that fight; he was training for Paul Felder. To take a fight on 24 hours’ notice that a lot of guys turned down is just a win. I didn’t really care what happened. You saw what he did in a short period of times. I don’t think people gave him credit.”