Quinton “Rampage” Jackson says Jon Jones is the “dirtiest fighter” he’s ever faced.
Reading this headline may have you thinking, ‘this isn’t news.’ Jon Jones, after all, does hold the reputation of being a bit roguish with his fighting style, given his penchant for poking his opponents’ eyes, accidental or otherwise.
But we were never given an insider’s look at how “dirty” of a fighter “Bones” really is. And in a recent episode of the Calabasas Fight Companion, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson did just that.
“He’s the dirtiest fighter, too. They had to change the rules because of him,” Rampage told comedian Brian Callen and former UFC fighters Josh Thomson and Brendan Schaub. “When I fought him, whenever I was, like, have any type of advantage, he would put his fingers in my eye.
“Your eyeball is your weakest thing in your body, right? So when I was fighting him, he was like this (outstretched arm and fingers) the whole time. It’s hard to train for this, too.
“He’d poke me in the eye, and then when you come in and advance, he’d kick your knee backwards. They should make that illegal.
“It was really hard fighting him. If anybody got any advantage on him, he was gonna kick your knee backwards, keep you away and he’s gonna figure that out.”
Rampage fought Jones for the light heavyweight title at UFC 135 in 2011. Six years later, MMA’s Unified Rules was indeed modified and added the use of an open hand while setting up attacks in its list of fouls.