SUNDAY NEWS DIGEST 4/30: Al Iaquinta tells Twitter followers what he’d do if he was UFC President, Jones-Cormier exchange (w/Hiscoe’s Analysis)

“Ragin’ Al”’s Twitter crusade continues.

On Saturday, Al Iaquinta took a relatively benign “Iaquinta for President” tweet from a fan and ran with it. Iaquinta took it to mean UFC President, not U.S. President, so his fun began from there. “Looks like Dana White has been impeached,” he wrote.

Iaquinta quickly began making executive orders and started trimming some of the fat from the UFC roster, namely Sage Northcutt. “You are being cut sorry kid,” Iaquinta tweeted. “Get some experience outside the UFC and maybe we’ll bring you back for TUF.”

Iaquinta also had to get himself a fight of course and he made sure it won’t be too far from home. “As new president of the UFC I’m announcing Cub Swanson vs. me at Nassau Coliseum,” he said while adding in where fans could find the “former” UFC President. “You can meet Dana White serving beers and hot dogs at the main entrance.”

He also showed an understanding of current UFC booking practices by offering Swanson the fight in one weight class in order to secure a title shot at another weight, telling Swanson “If you beat me at 150 lbs. in July, you fight Aldo Holloway winner.”

All in all, a pretty productive first day in the office for “Ragin’ Al.” Unfortunately, Swanson wasn’t able to take Iaquinta up on his offer due to a broken hand, but at least some groundwork has been laid out for the future.

Hiscoe’s Analysis: Iaquinta’s Twitter rants have been great and they will make sure he’s still on fans’ minds as long as he keeps it up. He’s walking a fine line in how he’s talking about Dana White, which could work either for or against him depending on White’s mood and how far he takes it. The big message here is that, clearly, Iaquinta is willing to fight again, fans are interested in seeing it, now it’s up to UFC to compensate him what he is worth in order to make it happen.

SUNDAY NOTEBOOK ITEMS…

-UFC posted a happy birthday message to Al Iaquinta today, as they do for many contracted fighters, but they used a less than flattering picture of Iaquinta looking like a deer in the headlights at a weigh-in. MMA Junkie compiled some of the best responses to the message HERE.

-Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier had a back-and-forth on Twitter this weekend. It started with Cormier responding to a fan asking if leaned on the towel while weighing in prior to UFC 210. Jones responded: “Man I can’t wait to pop you in the mouth.” Cormier came back with: “Funny that u would use that word lol ‘pop’ like ‘pop’ positive, ‘pop’ a molly, ‘pop’ a cialis. I could go on for days lol.”

-Bethe Correia told MMA Fighting that her UFC Singapore opponent Holly Holm is “overrated,” and “nothing spectacular.”

FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENT ROUNDUP

-Dominique Steele vs. Luke Jumeau at UFC Fight Night Auckland on June 11.

-Aspen Ladd vs. Jessica Eye at The Ultimate Fighter Finale on July 7 from Las Vegas.

NOW CHECK OUT YESTERDAY’S UPDATE: SATURDAY NEWS DIGEST 4/29: Benson Henderson updates his status after knee surgery, Matt Hamill, Jacare, Nam, Belfort, OSP (w/Analysis)


(MMATorch’s Daily News Digest features the top story of the day with added analysis, plus smaller tidbits in the News Notes section. Mike Hiscoe, who writes the News Digest Sundays through Thursdays, has a background in film criticism and previously wrote for the DVD Town and Movie Metropolis websites. His passion for Mixed Martial Arts goes back to 2005, but it was in the promotion for UFC 60: Hughes vs. Gracie that he really got hooked.”This is my house, I build it,” is still among the all-time great UFC promos. You can follow Mike on social media under the tag @mikehiscoe. He now provides his experienced writing and perspective on live MMA events for MMATorch.)

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