If you’d asked me a couple weeks ago what it would take to keep Al Iaquinta off the UFC 205 fight card – the one in his home state, at Madison Square Garden, the one seemingly every UFC fighter has been trying to get on lately – I would have said nothing less than an act of God.

Failing that, I guess a contract dispute is a close second. Though, when you look closely at this one it seems less like an isolated case of one fighter wanting more money and more like a symptom of a greater problem.

According to what Iaquinta (12-3-1 MMA, 7-2 UFC) told FOXSports.com, he declined to sign his bout agreement for a fight with Thiago Alves (21-10 MMA, 13-7 UFC) at UFC 205 because it just wasn’t enough money. Not after he’d lost most of his sponsors following the UFC’s deal with Reebok. Not after he’d been out of action for more than a year due to a knee injury. Especially not after the UFC, according to Iaquinta, declared him temporarily ineligible to receive fight-night bonuses as punishment for a series of relatively minor infractions.

So for now, to hear him tell it, he’s decided not to fight. He’s decided instead to sell real estate, do some personal training on the side, and wait to see how his situation develops. If you’re the UFC, or even just an MMA fan, that should probably worry you a little bit.

First, let’s make sure we understand what we’re talking about here. Iaquinta is a UFC lightweight on a four-fight winning streak, with three of those four coming via TKO. He’s 29, so it’s reasonable to think he still has several good fighting years left in him. The problem is, the terms of his current UFC deal have him feeling like it’s not even worth it to fight in front of a home crowd, and at a historic event.

So what’s happening here?

One issue is that Iaquinta, like many fighters, signed his current UFC contract back when the UFC still allowed fighters to represent approved sponsors in the cage. This was an important revenue stream for many, many fighters, and the UFC knew it. According to managers, the UFC even factored expected sponsor income into contract negotiations.

Then, without consulting the fighters, the UFC changed this business model. Now Reebok pays the UFC. The UFC pays fighters, but it pays them according to their experience, rather than their value to a range of sponsors, and the end result has been a pay cut for guys like Iaquinta.

For his 10th fight in the UFC, Iaquinta stood to make $5,000 in outfitting pay. That’s less than he made from a single sponsor in the old UFC, he told FOXSports.com, and in the old UFC he was allowed to have multiple sponsors.

It’s not just Iaquinta who’s pointed out the inherent unfairness of signing a contract with one understanding of his earning potential, only to have that turned upside down later on. It’s supposedly one of the main sticking points holding up the return of former UFC welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre.

And if St-Pierre, the former “king of pay-per-view,” is struggling to get the UFC to work with him on a new deal, what chance does “Raging Al” have?

But hey, it’s all about negotiating leverage, right? That’s business. Iaquinta hasn’t fought since April 2015, due mostly to his knee injury (for which, coincidentally, he said he had to battle the UFC in order to get the medical care he needed).

It’s not like UFC 205 will suffer in terms of ticket sales or even pay-per-view buy rates if Iaquinta vs. Alves isn’t on the card. So why should the organization pony up more money than it is contractually obligated to?

Here’s one reason: What does it say about this line of work if a 29-year-old lightweight on his way up the ranks decides, not unreasonably, that it’s not financially worth it to fight for the premier organization in the sport? Here he is, in what would seem to be a pretty good spot as an MMA fighter, and the payoff isn’t worth him taking time away from work in order to train for it.

If you’re a young aspiring fighter and you see that, what are you supposed to think? What, you and your friends will all be Conor McGregors, with not a single Al Iaquinta among you? Or that you just won’t get hurt – ever – despite the grueling nature of the sport? You won’t ever be the one trying to figure out how to stay financially afloat when your job has left you temporarily unable to work?

What those of us on the outside like to tell ourselves is that fighting is about living a dream – not doing a job. Iaquinta doesn’t like his $26,000 to show? Let him go punch a clock like the other working stiffs. No one’s making him fight for a living.

And that’s true. From the look of it, Iaquinta heard that loud and clear, and has responded accordingly. Which makes you wonder what kind of sport we’d have if more fighters got the same message. Something tells me that the promoters – who, by the way, aren’t doing their jobs for the love of it all – wouldn’t like where that line of reasoning ends.

For more on UFC 205, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.