Quinton Jackson is back in the UFC. Probably. It’s all a little confusing.
During the telecast of UFC Fight Night 58 on Saturday night it was announced that the one-time light heavyweight champion Jackson was headed back to the UFC. This was a total shock to everybody except for the untold millions on Twitter, where his re-signing was being discussed casually as a foregone conclusion.
The only hitch that people could come up with was a niggling one that went like this: Hey, wait, isn’t he still under contract with Bellator? The Viacom competitor? With the multi-billion dollar market cap? How is this possible?
To paraphrase Shakespeare (and a thousand mint-green lawyers), this Rampage signing brings us once again unto the breach, dear friends. Especially with it occurring right on the heels of the antitrust lawsuit that was filed against Zuffa on Tuesday.
Briefly, here are some questions that pop up as we try and make sense of it all.
Hold up, how is this “major” news…?
Throughout the five-hour Fox Sports 1 marathon of fights from some sweltering corner of Brazil it was teased that major breaking news was afoot, which sort of had an “OMG, OMG, OMG!” effect. Instead it was about Jackson, the same guy who wanted out of Zuffa so bad in early-2013 after three straight losses that he shot out of there like a balloon that slipped from our lips and made flatulent noises as it flew. You know what this all means, don’t you? That bridges in the fight game are fire retardant. Jackson tried (and tried [and tried]) to burn his bridges with the UFC, and yet here he is…back.
That clip was a little much, no?
In fact, the UFC ran a clip of Rampage in a Monster Energy Drink cap declaring “I’m baaack” as part of the bit to announce he’s baaaack. Jackson said that we had no idea how excited he was to return to the UFC…the same Jackson who not very long ago was bashing UFC matchmaker of being a “lil bitch,” ever since he beat “Chuck.” (As in Liddell, not me). Jackson, who’d won three straight fights during his time in Bellator and got a great many people fired up to fight him (or sue him), resorted to talking about himself in the third person.
“The thing about Rampage is, Rampage always comes to excite the fans,” he said. “I love the fans.” He also said Rampage is excited to return to the “big show.” (The big show that nearly left him in poverty when he left…or whatever it was he was complaining about back then). It’s all a little confusing.
Alright I’ll just go ahead and say it…what about his “existing contract?”
Even Bellator president Scott Coker was sort of wondering about that. Shortly after the announcement, Coker — who generally takes a few weeks to circle back to things like a “response” — tweeted a timely reminder. “Let us be clear that Quinton “Rampage” Jackson is under an exclusive contract with #BellatorMMA. We will protect our contractual rights.”
This has an ominous tone, doesn’t it? Like Bellator/Viacom might not just let Jackson scoot over to the UFC without a dogfight in court? Jackson cited a breach in contract for his bolting. Maybe this is just some twisted conspiracy, or a strategic maneuver that the UFC has come up with in light of the antitrust suit. Maybe Jackson is done fighting, and this is just a smokescreen. Maybe…maybe…maybe it’s legit? and Jackson knows his rights? and the idea of laying hands on Glover Teixeira again is enough to make him no give a damn one way or another?
Maybe.
“I haven’t been happy with my contract at Bellator for awhile, since after the pay-per-view with King Mo,” Jackson said in an interview with FOX. “Bjorn Rebney, I don’t know what happened. He left Bellator, got fired — I don’t know. The contract just wasn’t right. My manager and I, we were trying to fix it. Bellator, they didn’t want to fix it in 45 days. I terminated the contract.”
Fair enough. Probably. It’s all a little confusing.
Is Christian M’Pumbu the springboard to Zen-like contentment?
But wait, wasn’t Jackson washed up to begin with? He goes over to Bellator, beats Joey Beltran in what amounted to a televised bar brawl, then Christian M’Pumbu (whose name he never could pronounce), and finally Muhammed Lawal (possibly, depending how you squint at it), and that’s enough to come roaring back to the UFC? That’s enough for a record-skipping major news announcement during the final UFC event of the year? At 36 years old, thems some old Bungalows we’re now embroidering with gold, right?
Either that or this is a big “screw you” to Bellator, which dared place Jackson on a pay-per-view back in Memphis. In fact, that PPV, with its numbers still shrouded in secrecy, is another thing that gave Jackson the legs to leave his old/existing deal.
Can you imagine Quinton Jackson versus Jimi Manuwa?
Right? Or Jackson versus Shogun Rua again!? Or Hendo?! Or anybody who pinky swears to stand and bang?! Oh wait…what about wrestlers!?
The wrestlers…
Did we forget that Jackson is allergic to wrestlers? Remember when Ryan Bader went to Japan and took the pestle to him? Jackson was irate that the UFC booked him against — of all things — a “wrestler.” He aired those grievances all the way up to his final fight against Teixeira, who beat him very unceremoniously all over the place and sent him on his way.
These days there is an oldie’s circuit at 205 pounds that Jackson can play on (Shogun, Henderson, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Feijao), so maybe the idea is that he won’t need to stare down a singlet again anytime soon. If he doesn’t behave, though (and he won’t), there’s always Patrick Cummins waiting to plant Rampage into the canvas like he were so many tomatoes.
Give the devil his due?
Jackson turned this whole thing into an allegory on Saturday night once the news was free for all to criticize or embrace. He tweeted some thoughtful stuff. “Just a thought…But I’ve learned a big lesson in life and business: sometimes u should just stay with the devil u know @UFC.”
That’s cold! The Scott Coker-led Bellator was an unfamiliar devil (a.k.a. the worst kind).
What does it all mean?
It means this: So much for that King Mo rematch. And Tito Ortiz will just have to get on without Rampage to push around. Beyond that, I’m not totally sure. Feels like some gavels will be involved, some gray suits without funny bones. We’ll mention “breach” a lot. Dissect letters and words, their meanings, their gravitational pulls. Jackson may or may not fight in Zuffa. He probably will.
Possibly.
It’s all a little confusing.