Moises was already aiming at Iaquinta even before he fought Alexander Hernandez this past weekend in Las Vegas. Victorious via unanimous decision at UFC Vegas 20 on Feb. 27, Moises doubled down on the challenge in his post-fight interview.
Yet Iaquinta didn’t seem that interested.
“Congratulations Thiago Moises,” Iaquinta wrote on social media. “A fight against Rafael Fiziev is a great matchup. I will help you find that house.”
Moises, who won three in a row against Michael Johnson, Bobby Green and now Hernandez, was surprised with his reaction to the callout.
“He’s the matchmaker, he sells houses, but he won’t fight” Moises said in an interview with MMA Fighting. “I think he should fight. It’s been a while since his last fight. I think it would be a good fight for both of us. I’m coming off three wins, so I believe I deserve a fight with him. I believe it would be a good test for me and a great fight for the fans.”
Iaquinta has lost three of his last four under the UFC banner since 2018 – a trio of decisions in bouts against Hooker, Donald Cerrone and Khabib Nurmagomedov with a Dec. 2018 victory over Kevin Lee in between.
Moises is confident that a clash with Iaquinta would go down “just like my last one” with Hernandez.
“I think he should accept this fight,” he said. “He’s been out for a while. If he doesn’t want to fight, the UFC should remove him for the ranking because he’s inactive and he’s holding the division.”
Moises was happy with his performance Saturday but thinks “I could have finished him early, and that show I still have to continue evolving.” The Brazilian lightweight sees himself as “a complete athlete” that has what it takes to fight the world’s best, vowing to “prove that fight after fight.”
“I watched [Hernandez’s] fights and nothing surprised me,” he said. “I didn’t underestimate him, I trained really hard. I watched his last fight against Chris [Gruetzemacher], where he dominated on the feet. Everybody kept saying he was a new athlete after changing teams, but they forgot I train at American Top Team, the best team in the world.
“He thought he was going to do the same thing to me, said he would win in the first round, but he forgot I’m not at the same level of his last opponent.”
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