Al Iaquinta is a successful mixed martial arts fighter who fought with the world star of the UFC - Khabib Nurmagomedov. The man has dozens of victories over rivals from various countries, his defeats can be counted on one hand.
Biography
The future professional fighter was born in 1987 in New York City. Al's birthday fell on April 30th. As the man himself notes, he has a lot of Italian roots.
From childhood, the boy wanted to play sports, he was attracted to wrestling. Already from school, the teenager tried to perform at various competitions of the municipal type, but he did not achieve practically any success there.
After receiving secondary education, Iaquinta decided to go to college. There he had the opportunity to represent a new educational institution in wrestling competitions. At this stage of his development as a fighter, Al was unable to achieve any impressive results, he only took places in the middle of the list of participants.
In the second year of study, the young man discovered the world of mixed martial arts, then he realized that this sports direction attracted him much more than what he had been doing all his life. Despite the fact that Al was quite "crushed" in the first training session, he did not give up and continued to train.
Career in MMA
Iaquinta began his ascent along the path of a mixed martial arts fighter at the amateur level, he easily won the first 12 victories. Then in 2009 the guy made his debut in the professional ring, he became the finalist of the 15th season of the famous TV show The Ultimate Fighter, held under the auspices of the "Ultimate Fighting Championship".
In the decisive fight in this competition, Al made an unfortunate mistake and allowed the opponent to take control of his back, so the novice fighter was defeated. Despite the second place, the UFC offered him a contract, and the guy continued to perform within this organization.
For the second time, Iaquinta was able to win a brilliant victory over a strong opponent: Ryan Couture. In the future, his career went uphill, the next ten personal fights ended with the guy's victories over various opponents, among them were the UFC champions.
Fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov
El went to this fight with a series of five victories in a row, he hoped to take the championship belt from the world famous Khabib. The first round was left for the Dagestani athlete, he left Iaquinta almost no chance. The remaining 3 parts of the fight were practically "in one wicket", the Russian took the victory from the American athlete by unanimous decision.
Interesting Facts
To create his own fighting style, Al studied fighting techniques from various types of martial arts, but it is worth noting that he is not a specialist in any of them. The guy does not have any significant success in any particular area, with the exception of the purple Jiu-Jitsu belt.
As the athlete himself notes, when Iaquinta loses, he never shows his opponent and the audience his weakness, he never used the well-known fighting signs of surrender. The fighter received all his defeats within the framework of the “Absolute Fighting Championship” due to the strangulation technique, but in both cases he did not give up, the fights were stopped by the decision of the judges.
