BROOKLYN, NY - APRIL 06: Al Iaquinta poses on the scale during the UFC 223 official weigh-ins on April 6, 2018 in Brooklyn, New York. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)

Long Island’s Al Iaquinta is looking to stay active after his UFC 223 encounter with Khabib Nurmagomedov. He has his eyes on the human highlight reel, Justin Gaethje as his next opponent.

It’s hard to sit around and fantasize between the multitude of lightweight matchups that can be made and not love the ones that you’ll come up with. The 155-pound division has always been one of the deepest talent-wise in the modern era of MMA and continues to be as time goes on.

Inside that division is arguably the most exciting fighter of all time, the former World Series of Fighting champion, Justin ‘The Highlight’ Gaethje. Another man who is very rarely found in an unentertaining fight is Serra-Longo product, ‘Ragin’ Al Iaquinta.

Iaquinta’s last fight came in the chaos that was UFC 223’s fight week in the beginning of April. Originally expected to face Paul Felder heading into the week, Iaquinta would find himself bumped into the main event slot and fighting in the undisputed title fight against the division’s most dominant fighter, Khabib Nurmagomedov.

Surviving the full five-round affair, Iaquinta would lose a unanimous decision on the scorecards but put up a good effort in a fight that no one expected him to have much success in.

With that craziness behind him now, Iaquinta looks forward and talked on his podcast, Call Me Al recently about how he wants Gaethje next.

“We’re hoping for sometime in August,” Iaquinta said, “August, September. I think [the UFC] wanted it to be sooner, but like, [Gaethje] needs a rest. I was looking out for his health with that one. He needs a break for a minute.

If it goes down the way it’s supposed to, it’ll be a good fight, a tough fight,”

Just three fights into his UFC career thus far and all three of Gaethje’s fights have been fight of the night award winners along with fight of the year candidates. His most recent two saw him on the receiving end of most of the punishment as he took his first pair of professional MMA losses.

Gaethje’s last fight was at UFC on Fox 29 on April 14th against Dustin Poirier.