UFC lightweight Al Iaquinta said he’s recovered and is ready to fight. The only problem is, he’s not ready to fight for the numbers attached to his current contract.

“Guys are getting paid to fight scrubs,” Iaquinta on Thursday told MMAjunkie Radio. “I’m just trying to get paid frickin’ something to live on for these guys that are (expletive) everyone up.”

Iaquinta (13-3-1 MMA, 8-2 UFC), who was forced to withdraw from a fight with Paul Felder (15-3 MMA, 7-3 UFC) at UFC 218 due to an undisclosed injury, said he’s waiting on the UFC after a recent exchange over money.

“They were trying to get me to fight (Paul) Felder again, but I told them what I wanted to fight him, and it wasn’t unreasonable, but I haven’t heard back from them,” Iaquinta said. “The ball’s in their court right now.”

The relationship between the 30-year-old Iaquinta, who also works as a real estate agent, and the UFC appears no better now than it was for much of 2017, when Iaquinta repeatedly berated the UFC over pay and was banned from receiving post-fight bonuses, leading him to call for a fighters union. UFC officials have disputed Iaquinta’s recollection of the events that put the two parties on the outs.

So it appears Iaquinta is back to a standoff situation. Although he feels justified in asking for more money, he doesn’t expect the UFC will budge.

“There’s a lot of guys in the UFC that are getting paid way more than what I asked for, and they don’t even have a number next to their name, and they haven’t knocked anyone out,” Iaquinta said. “What I asked for is not unreasonable, and it’s in their court now. I don’t know what they’re going to do, but I don’t think they like me. I think they’re probably just going to let me (sit out and not fight).”

Iaquinta owes two fights to the promotion, but his contract can be extended if he turns down fights, leaving him in long-term limbo with the promotion.

He cited a $75,000 purse collected by Edson Barboza in a UFC 219 fight opposite Khabib Nurmagomedov as an example of why fighters need to get paid more money. Barboza was badly battered by the Dagestani fighter en route to a unanimous decision.

“That’s like, life-changing (expletive) right there,” Iaquinta said. “That (expletive) with your mind, and his face is never going to look the same. And $75,000 is barely worth it.”

For more on the UFC’s upcoming schedule, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.

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