Al Iaquinta has a message for ‘weird’ Tony Ferguson: ‘No one likes you, go away’

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) was forced to reshuffle its UFC 223 pay-per-view (PPV) line up earlier this month in Brooklyn, New York, when interim titleholder Tony Ferguson blew out his knee and withdrew from his Khabib Nurmagomedov title fight.

Getting the call up was Al Iaquinta, previously scheduled to throw hands with Paul Felder, but “Raging Al” was unable to get the job done, getting whooped for five rounds by the superior “Eagle” in “The Empire State.”

I guess Ferguson has a problem with Nurmagomedov parading around town with the 155-pound belt he got from Conor McGregor — without defeating “Notorious” — and used Iaquinta’s name to slander him on Twitter.

And “Raging Al” responded in kind to the boys at Submission Radio.

“Right now, I could beat the shit out of Tony Ferguson with my pinky finger. The guy can’t even walk. You can’t talk shit right now. If I had to pull out of a title fight because I tripped over a wire, you’re not hearing me talk shit on twitter at all. If it wasn’t for fighting he’d be like a worthless person. There’s no point to Tony Ferguson besides, honestly, really like, people beating his ass. He gets dropped every fight and he’s out of his mind. No one likes personality, he’s a weird dude. ]You tripped on a wire and I got the title shot, now you’re gonna come at me? I’ve fought with worse injuries than that, guaranteed, in my career. Don’t come after me cause I took advantage of a situation that he couldn’t capitalize on. How many fights in a row has he won? 10 fights? And he still hasn’t fought for a title? There’s a reason for that. No one likes you. Go away.”

Ferguson drew the ire of mixed martial arts (MMA) fans as a contestant on The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 13 combat sports reality show, bringing up Charlie Rader’s son after having an alcohol-induced meltdown.

He later went through a maturation process that appeared to settle him down, but the longstanding joke — even from this former opponent — is that something is a little off with the fighter known as “El Cucuy.”

Either way, Iaquinta will return to action later this year, along with Ferguson, but it’s unlikely their paths will cross unless something wacky happens. Which is always a concern whenever McGregor gets involved.