Search icon

MMA

04th May 2019

Al Iaquinta reveals the rule that the UFC named after him

Fighters are warned not to break the Al Iaquinta rule

Darragh Murphy

Al Iaquinta’s infamous post-fight outburst resulted in the UFC establishing a new rule for its fighters.

Iaquinta is responsible for one of the most memorable post-fight interviews of all time, having aimed an expletive-laden tirade at the crowd after fans booed his 2015 split decision victory over Jorge Masvidal.

‘Raging Al’ has revealed that the UFC now warns every fighter to keep their language clean when they get on the microphone in the Octagon and they actually refer to it as ‘The Al Iaquinta Rule.’

“They have a rule now about me. You can’t curse on the mic. So that’s pretty cool,” Iaquinta said on Submission Radio. “After the weigh-ins, they do a meeting backstage. And they always bring me up and they say, no matter what happens, you can’t curse on the mic. It’s the Al Iaquinta Rule. So I’m in the history books.”

Iaquinta will fight Donald Cerrone in the main event of the UFC’s card in Ottawa on Saturday night and it wasn’t until his last bout, a victory in a rematch with Kevin Lee last December, that he discovered that his rule was a real thing.

“I heard about it forever,” Iaquinta explained. “Everyone kept telling me about it. And then finally, I fought Kevin Lee in the last FOX show, and Dana comes in the back and he goes, ‘I always give this speech, but now he’s actually here.’ And we talked about the Al Iaquinta Rule, and it was great.

“But I was glad that I finally got to hear the rule myself in person. That was good.”