Raging Al Goes Off

“The UFC has done nothing for me,” he told host Ariel Helwani. “They left me high and dry [when I was injured]. I had to beg them for freakin’ knee surgery. Their doctor said I would never fight again if I had the knee surgery I wanted. Two nights ago I got in the cage.” “They told me I would never fight again if I had the surgery I wanted to have,” he elaborated. “I did all the research. I did. All day, I would wake up in the morning and I was on the computer all day doing research about knees. I could freakin’ do a knee surgery myself at this point. And they told me I would never fight. They wanted to send me out and get stem cell injections, take six weeks out of my life – six months really – and they wanted to try stem cell. I said ‘it’s proven it doesn’t work. Why are we doing this. You’re wasting my time.’ They said ‘well, we want to give it a shot before we pay $60,000 for a surgery.’ $60,000 for a surgery is nothing to you, and you’re going to cry? They only wanted to pay $15,000. A normal surgery at a normal hospital would have cost $15,000, but because I wanted to go to a good hospital, a hospital with a special surgery and the best doctor in the world – I wanted that – they said ‘oh it’s $60,000. We’re gonna pay for the regular [$15,000], you’ve gotta make up the rest.’ I said ‘I can’t make up the rest, are you fucking kidding me? How? How am I going to do that? I was going to say, ‘listen, pay for the surgery and take it out of my next purse when I fight again.’ I couldn’t freakin’ shell out money for a surgery. Go fuck yourself.”

Iaquinta then threw a bit of heat in UFC President Dana White’s direction, blasting him for criticizing the fighters on the admittedly slow UFC 208 by suggesting the best part of the card was his flight home from Brooklyn.

“Dana White has done a lot for this sport, but he hasn’t got one injury from this sport,” Iaquinta said. “For him to say ‘the best part of UFC Brooklyn was the flight home’… you’re on a private jet bro! Shut the fuck up! [For] most people, that would be the highlight of their life! Forget the night – you’re on a private jet, of course it’s the highlight of your night! These guys are fighting in the cage getting hurt.” “Who was it with the leg kicks? Someone got their legs kicked in,” Iaquinta continued, referencing Dustin Poirier’s win over Jim Miller. “[Dana White] owes an apology to all those motherfuckers. That’s bullshit. Shut your fucking mouth.”

Raging Al is not shy. 

Love Al for his honesty but this isn't going to help him get the big contract he's looking for. It's one of those weird things that you can either shut your mouth and be the UFC's bitch boy or you can open your mouth, stand up for what you believe in and get fucked. It's a lose lose situation and so very sad to see entertaining fighters go through. 

Outside of Ben Askren and the Diaz Bros. raging Al is one of the guys with big balls to say what is on his mind. This will get him nowhere good with the UFC as we have seen. Hell Nate would have never fought Conor if they did not need a short notice opponent. Before the Conor fights the UFC insisted that Nate did not move the needle.

Why is he complaining that they paid 60k for a surgery though? Even if he had to complain or beg it seems like he still got the surgery.

CRE - Outside of Ben Askren and the Diaz Bros. raging Al is one of the guys with big balls to say what is on his mind. This will get him nowhere good with the UFC as we have seen. Hell Nate would have never fought Conor if they did not need a short notice opponent. Before the Conor fights the UFC insisted that Nate did not move the needle.

Why is he complaining that they paid 60k for a surgery though? Even if he had to complain or beg it seems like he still got the surgery.

Good call on Nate.

Seems to me that regardless of whether he's right or wrong he's going about this as the worst possible way to fix the issue.

 

For one thing, he doesn't know anything about what the doctors know. that's not even debatable. But the first thing id' have done would get a second and third opinion and after that determine what the best option is.

 

and "i did all the research" means absolutely 0. that's like someone scoping out webmd and diagnosing themselves. he knows nothing about the medical issues and nothing about how to manage it.

 

I don't know, it just seems like all he's doing is burrying himself. He sure as shit isn't going to be getting any favors I can say that for sure.

 

There's a right way and a wrong way to approach problems. this is 100% the wrong way.

Humphrey -

Seems to me that regardless of whether he's right or wrong he's going about this as the worst possible way to fix the issue.

 

For one thing, he doesn't know anything about what the doctors know. that's not even debatable. But the first thing id' have done would get a second and third opinion and after that determine what the best option is.

 

and "i did all the research" means absolutely 0. that's like someone scoping out webmd and diagnosing themselves. he knows nothing about the medical issues and nothing about how to manage it.

 

I don't know, it just seems like all he's doing is burrying himself. He sure as shit isn't going to be getting any favors I can say that for sure.

 

There's a right way and a wrong way to approach problems. this is 100% the wrong way.

Reactions out of pure anger are the result of a sick and tired and isolated group of people. Look at how they got here rather than bemoaning that they're starting to snap over shitty working conditions.

Raging Al is all the rage these days!

Humphrey -

Seems to me that regardless of whether he's right or wrong he's going about this as the worst possible way to fix the issue.

 

For one thing, he doesn't know anything about what the doctors know. that's not even debatable. But the first thing id' have done would get a second and third opinion and after that determine what the best option is.

 

and "i did all the research" means absolutely 0. that's like someone scoping out webmd and diagnosing themselves. he knows nothing about the medical issues and nothing about how to manage it.

 

I don't know, it just seems like all he's doing is burrying himself. He sure as shit isn't going to be getting any favors I can say that for sure.

 

There's a right way and a wrong way to approach problems. this is 100% the wrong way.

Problem is you nor I know how many Dr's he saw. How many opinions he got. If I remember correctly he has talked about this before and he jumped through a lot of hoops to get this surgery.

He may not be doing the smartest thing airing this out on the MMA hour but he doesn't think he is paid enough to worry about it. They won't cut him if he keeps winning and the more vocal he is, the more valuable he is to other promotions. The UFC will give him bad matchups but if he keeps winning, they will pay him.

I'm a bigger fan now than I was and I was already a pretty big fan. If I was looking for a house in Long Island, 100% I'd go through him. Just because its Al.

Standup29 -
Humphrey -

Seems to me that regardless of whether he's right or wrong he's going about this as the worst possible way to fix the issue.

 

For one thing, he doesn't know anything about what the doctors know. that's not even debatable. But the first thing id' have done would get a second and third opinion and after that determine what the best option is.

 

and "i did all the research" means absolutely 0. that's like someone scoping out webmd and diagnosing themselves. he knows nothing about the medical issues and nothing about how to manage it.

 

I don't know, it just seems like all he's doing is burrying himself. He sure as shit isn't going to be getting any favors I can say that for sure.

 

There's a right way and a wrong way to approach problems. this is 100% the wrong way.

Problem is you nor I know how many Dr's he saw. How many opinions he got. If I remember correctly he has talked about this before and he jumped through a lot of hoops to get this surgery.

He may not be doing the smartest thing airing this out on the MMA hour but he doesn't think he is paid enough to worry about it. They won't cut him if he keeps winning and the more vocal he is, the more valuable he is to other promotions. The UFC will give him bad matchups but if he keeps winning, they will pay him.

I'm a bigger fan now than I was and I was already a pretty big fan. If I was looking for a house in Long Island, 100% I'd go through him. Just because its Al.

he didn't mention seeing other doctors in that rant, he just said he'd researched it himself.

 

I'm not arguing the right or wrong of his statement, i'm saying the way he's approaching it will 100% cost him more than it will help

Humphrey - 
Standup29 -
Humphrey -

Seems to me that regardless of whether he's right or wrong he's going about this as the worst possible way to fix the issue.

 

For one thing, he doesn't know anything about what the doctors know. that's not even debatable. But the first thing id' have done would get a second and third opinion and after that determine what the best option is.

 

and "i did all the research" means absolutely 0. that's like someone scoping out webmd and diagnosing themselves. he knows nothing about the medical issues and nothing about how to manage it.

 

I don't know, it just seems like all he's doing is burrying himself. He sure as shit isn't going to be getting any favors I can say that for sure.

 

There's a right way and a wrong way to approach problems. this is 100% the wrong way.

Problem is you nor I know how many Dr's he saw. How many opinions he got. If I remember correctly he has talked about this before and he jumped through a lot of hoops to get this surgery.

He may not be doing the smartest thing airing this out on the MMA hour but he doesn't think he is paid enough to worry about it. They won't cut him if he keeps winning and the more vocal he is, the more valuable he is to other promotions. The UFC will give him bad matchups but if he keeps winning, they will pay him.

I'm a bigger fan now than I was and I was already a pretty big fan. If I was looking for a house in Long Island, 100% I'd go through him. Just because its Al.

he didn't mention seeing other doctors in that rant, he just said he'd researched it himself.

 

I'm not arguing the right or wrong of his statement, i'm saying the way he's approaching it will 100% cost him more than it will help


We know that not saying shit gets you used and abused by the UFC. Like it or not, the only way fighters are being taken care of is making a scene and publicly embarrassing the UFC & WME. It's pretty clear that if Al had simply been passive and gone with the flow he wouldn't have had the surgery needed to recover, outside of pay issues.

So he wants the best doctor at the best hospital to perform the procedure, UFC was willing to pay to cover it for a local hospital to do it, and he got pissed? This guy sucks.

RenzoStudent2004 - So he wants the best doctor at the best hospital to perform the procedure, UFC was willing to pay to cover it for a local hospital to do it, and he got pissed? This guy sucks.

By his account, they didn't want to have the surgery at all. Instead they wanted him to get stem cell injections, delaying surgery, and the UFC specialist told him that a surgery would leave him unable to ever fight again.

It seems as though they tried to scare him into a useless, cheaper "treatment" in order to save a few bucks.

Really liked how he was referred to as "The Rage of Long Island" during his fight with Diego. For some reason, I really like that moniker.

Hang on.. Did the UFC and Dana injure him? Or did he choose to be a fighter and face inevitable injury?? Some fighters need a fucking reality check and he's clearly one of them. Go get a safe job if you don't wanna face the possibility of medical bills, from what we hear, Dana is VERY good with that shit most of the time whatever his other failings may be. If he isn't good to you when you need medical bills paid, maybe you're a dick? 

Sucks that guys like him aren't getting paid squat by the UFC. 10 fights in the UFC and not a single freakin bonus. The fact that guys rely on bonuses is even insane. After paying for training, management, taxes, etc. combined with the risk of surgery not being covered makes being a pro MMA fighter rough. It's terrible considering the UFC is a multi-billion dollar organization. 

Dreville79 -

Hang on.. Did the UFC and Dana injure him? Or did he choose to be a fighter and face inevitable injury?? Some fighters need a fucking reality check and he's clearly one of them. Go get a safe job if you don't wanna face the possibility of medical bills, from what we hear, Dana is VERY good with that shit most of the time whatever his other failings may be. If he isn't good to you when you need medical bills paid, maybe you're a dick? 

People are generally covered when injured on the job. It's crazy that these guys have to pay for their own surgeries when they're getting hurt by competing in a brutal sport. As far as Dana paying for surgeries, if that's truly the case it's silly that he arbitrarily decides which guys he pays surgeries for. As Al said then it's a matter of who kisses his ass the most. 

Whining Al is more like it Holy fuck man.

i can't imagine what his parents went through raising this whiney shit prolly threw temper tantrums at everything.

does he even think about what he's saying? There's a reason u don't get bonuses or any love u dumb fuck, u talk shit on people and go against the grain by ditching commitments u will not get any favors. These are the facts of life. Where's the common sense?

i thought Kevin Lee was dumb, this guy right here is the real thing tho.

Dreville79 -

Hang on.. Did the UFC and Dana injure him? Or did he choose to be a fighter and face inevitable injury?? Some fighters need a fucking reality check and he's clearly one of them. Go get a safe job if you don't wanna face the possibility of medical bills, from what we hear, Dana is VERY good with that shit most of the time whatever his other failings may be. If he isn't good to you when you need medical bills paid, maybe you're a dick? 

If you were hurt on the job would you just say "fuck it...this surgery is on me" to your boss?

BispingDecisionedDesperateDansDreams -
They only wanted to pay $15,000. A normal surgery at a normal hospital would have cost $15,000, but because I wanted to go to a good hospital, a hospital with a special surgery and the best doctor in the world – I wanted that – they said ‘oh it’s $60,000. We’re gonna pay for the regular [$15,000], you’ve gotta make up the rest.’ I said ‘I can’t make up the rest, are you fucking kidding me? How? How am I going to do that? I was going to say, ‘listen, pay for the surgery and take it out of my next purse when I fight again.’ I couldn’t freakin’ shell out money for a surgery. Go fuck yourself.

So, the UFC did offer to pay for the surgery but not at 400% of the normal cost? And you told them to fuck themselves. And then you complained that you couldn't actually afford the more expensive surgery that you insisted on getting.

This might be the first time that I don't think the UFC is in the wrong when it comes to how they treat fighters.

If your job depended on your health would you just say "fuck it....hope it works" or seek out the best there is...?

What about heart surgery?  Would you rather get worked on by some guy in a normal hospital in southern Illinois or the best of the best in Chicago?  Afterall....they're both doctors right?