UFC News: Al Iaquinta recalls his first fight with Kevin Lee, claims rematch has been a long time coming

What's the story?

Since handing Kevin Lee a loss in his UFC debut about five years ago, 'Raging' Al Iaquinta seems to be pretty confident ahead of their scheduled rematch which takes place this coming Sunday.

Speaking with MMAWeekly recently, Iaquinta revealed that when the UFC came calling and asked Iaquinta to accept a rematch against 'The Mowtown Phenom', the former didn't waste any time in accepting the rematch.

In case you didn't know...

At UFC 169, Kevin Lee made his promotional debut for the Ultimate Fighting Championship and in his first fight inside the Octagon, 'The Motown Phenom' faced off and was eventually beaten by top Lightweight contender Al Iaquinta.

The heart of the matter

According to Al Iaquinta, he feels that this is definitely the perfect time to have two of the most talented Lightweight fighters to go toe-to-toe with each other in terms of another highly anticipated rematch in the UFC.

Iaquinta noted that both he and Lee have been going back-and-forth with each other not only on social media but in terms of rankings as well.

“It’s definitely a fight that’s been a long time coming. We’ve been going back and forth at each other as far as poking at each other. We’ve also been going back and forth in terms of the rankings. I won a bunch of fights, I became ranked and he was calling me out. Then he got ranked higher than me, I was calling him out."

'Raging Al' further added that this definitely seems to be the right time for a rematch between himself and Kevin Lee, as he added:

“It seemed like this is the perfect time for that fight to happen.”

Iaquinta even recalled his first meeting with Lee five years ago, claiming that 'The Mowtown Phenom' was rather amateurish back then, however, the current version of Kevin Lee is definitely a lot bigger, stronger and is experienced as well.

“I do remember him being tough, strong, young and inexperienced. I remember him in the back he looked out of place but trying to look tough. He was grilling me kind of amateurish. Kind of new to the game but a young, hungry kid. He’s come a long way. He’s very seasoned now. He’s bigger and stronger now and more experienced now."

What's next?

Kevin Lee and Al Iaquinta will meet in a mega rematch later this month as part of UFC on Fox: 31 which takes place on the 16th of December at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.