I realize that I’ve been somewhat hard on Quinton Jackson over the past week.
The truth is that I’ve long been a Rampage fan. He was one of my three favorite fighters during the PRIDE era, and I always look forward to his fights in the UFC. And yes, that includes his bout with Matt Hamill, which wasn’t exactly the biggest main event in the history of fighting.
I’ve spent plenty of time with Jackson, away from the bright lights of the arena and the media obligations he so hates fulfilling during fight week. My old employer sponsored a post-fight pool party for Jackson last May, the day after he beat Matt Hamill, at the Red Rock Casino in Las Vegas. It wasn’t publicized at all, and when the actual party rolled around, the crew basically consisted of myself, a few of my co-workers, Stefan Struve and Jackson and his crew.
It was a good day. I spent plenty of time talking to Jackson, almost exclusively about video games. Games are a thing that Jackson is truly passionate about, and it was fun to engage him about something other than fighting for a change.
My buddy Jon, who came out to Vegas to spend a week, debated with Jackson over the merits of Call of Duty vs. Battlefield for well over half an hour. Jackson was firmly in the Call of Duty camp, while Jon argued that Battlefield presented the better multiplayer experience. Jackson disagreed and slapped Jon across the face. It wasn’t an aggressive slap—it was a playful thing, and it made Jon’s day.
What we tend to forget, as fans and as journalists, is that these guys are completely human outside of the cage. We all love fighting, and Jackson wouldn’t be a fighter if he didn’t love the sport, but there’s more to these guys than what you see in the cage. Whenever I’m interviewing a fighter for a story I’m working on, I almost always stay away from discussing the actual fight.
I do this intentionally. Fighters are repeatedly asked the same questions, over and over, for each and every fight. The routine never changes, and I can understand how that gets annoying after awhile. They give the same answer and we write the same story, every single time.
So yes, I’ve probably been too hard on Jackson. He’s an emotional guy, and he’s going through a phase of his career where he’s not as relevant as he once was. That can’t be an easy thing to accept. He comes from a time when pleasing the fans meant more than wins and losses, and he’s now stuck in an era where wins and losses actually matter.
He’ll face Mauricio “Shogun” Rua later this year in his final UFC fight. It’s a bout that should deliver, both in terms of excitement for the fans and in the kind of fight that Jackson has been seeking over the last two years. But first, he’ll undergo double knee surgery, as he revealed on Twitter this morning.
2 keep it real,the Shogun fight will have 2 wait,I just found out that I have 2 get surgery on both knees. But I heal fast don’t trip.
I hope Rampage heals quickly, and I hope the fight with Shogun is everything he wants it to be. And I hope he finds happiness after that fight, whether it’s in the UFC or somewhere else in the world. After all he’s done for the sport, he deserves that.
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