Former UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson is just days away from what he says will be his final fight with the UFC. In the days leading up to that fight, the co-main event at UFC on Fox 6, Jackson has taken many shots at his soon-to-be-former employer, rolling out a laundry list of grievances he has with the promotion.
On Thursday, UFC president Dana White answered some of those charges when he spoke to the media following the pre-fight press conference.
When asked about Jackson, White did something he usually is reluctant to do: He laid out how much money Jackson has made with the UFC, saying, “From 2007 to 2012, and he took a year off to film a movie, he made $15.2 million.”
In almost anyone’s world, that’s a decent amount of change. There’s no doubt that Jackson is correct when he says that the UFC profited from his toils as well, but $15.2 million for 11 fights comes to, on average, more than $1.3 million a fight.
That’s not too shabby, especially when you consider that, as White pointed out, “Rampage made that much money and he won the title, defended it once and then lost it. It’s not like he went on a Georges St-Pierre, Anderson Silva type run, he’s done pretty well.”
Jackson has also lamented that boxers make more money than MMA fighters, a charge that White answered by saying, “You know how many boxers I know that want to come over here and fight? Boxing is a tough, tough business. If you think it’s bad over here, wait until you get over there.”
White knows that Jackson has huge upside and potential if he sets his mind to it and focuses.
“Rampage has the ability to be a huge star, we’ve seen that. When he’s on and his head’s right and he’s in the game, there’s nobody more entertaining.”
On Thursday it was clear that Jackson’s head was not in the game, well, not in the UFC game that is. During the press conference Jackson chose to play a video game on his PlayStation Vita while on the dais, something that White found insulting to the members of the press who attended the event.
In the end White feels, “This is one of those cases where everybody thinks the grass is greener on the other side and you get to the other side and you’re like ‘s***, this isn’t what I thought it was going to be.’”
Will it be different for Jackson? Will the grass actually be greener on the other side? Following his fight against Glover Teixeira on Saturday night in Chicago, Jackson will get the chance to find out.
All quotes obtained firsthand by Bleacher Report MMA.
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