Al Iaquinta has been making waves in the highly-competitive Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) lightweight division, winning three straight over the likes of Rodrigo Damm, Ross Pearson and more recently, Joe Lauzon.
After knocking out "J-Lau" at UFC 183 back on Jan. 31, 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada (recap), "Raging" decided to celebrate early, admitting during his interview on The MMA Hour that he snuck into a closed bar at The MGM Grand Garden Arena to get his drink on.
Iaquinta also revealed that the contents in the cup he had at the post-fight presser (video) had a little bit more than just water, which could explain his good mood (via MMA Fighting).
"I was hammered, bro. Yeah, we had a little vodka and soda in there. There was a 25-minute Nick Diaz fight, so we had some time to kill. The bar closed, they closed the bar. Conor McGregor gets like a $75 million glass of freakin' whatever the hell he gets. I had to sneak in the back and steal some vodka. There was a room in the back, it was like a bar but it was closed. I snuck in there and greased the bartender, and he made me a bunch of them (drinks). He must have thought I was freaking Anderson Silva or something because he put them on a plate and carried them. I felt like I had a butler."
But the celebrating didn't end there, as Al and his buds proceeded to trash his hotel room. To make matters worse, video of the incident was accidentally uploaded to Iaquinta's Instagram account.
It has since been deleted.
Despite popular belief that his trashing of the room was due to the fact that Al was enraged for not receiving a "Fight Night" bonus, "Raging" said that wasn't the case, as he was simply happy for knocking out Lauzon.
His words:
"I was wrecking that hotel, man. I wasn't pissed, I was actually pretty happy. It was more celebrating. That's the best time to wreck something, go crazy, you know? The refrigerator got thrown, a cart tipped over. Al these things were accidents. It's kind of like a game, we will find out and see. If they send you a bill or they don't send you a bill. I'll give it a month or two. Keeping my fingers crossed."
Still, despite getting passed over for a $50,000 bonus, Iaquinta hopes he gets some discretionary cheddar from UFC down the line; preferably around the same time he receives a bill to pay for the damage done to his room.
"Usually they will send something like a month after. Hopefully that will come right at the time that they send me the bill for the hotel room. Then, we can just like call it even."
Iaquinta will look to keep his streak alive when he takes on Jorge Masvidal at UFC Fight Night 63 on April 4, 2015 at the Patriot Center in Fairfax, Virginia (details).
If he manages to get his fourth straight win, perhaps the talented lightweight can refrain from trashing another hotel room and find other ways to celebrate.