Quinton “Rampage” Jackson recently sat down with Gary Alexander of Fighter’s Only Magazine for an exclusive interview, and per usual, provided several insights into the enigma wrapped mystery that is the former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion’s mind. On the heels of an unsuccessful title bid against Jon Jones, Jackson has opted for a training camp that won’t cost him six figures for his upcoming UFC 144 bout against Ryan Bader. According to Jackson, he had originally planned on returning to MusclePharm for the bout with Bader, but upon coming to the realization that it would in fact be cold in that part of the country, decided to stay at his own newly formed gym in Southern California.
For the most part, the interview was standard Rampage fare, chocked full of paranoid delusions, incoherent rambling, and a complete disregard for the interviewer beside him. You know, the stuff we love about ‘Page. But things took an interesting turn when Jackson was asked how he saw the Bader fight going down in a perfect world:
In a perfect world, I step in the cage, and I yawn just like just I did on you and he fuckin’ faints. And then I get my check and walk out there like, ‘Thanks!’ and I don’t even gotta do the interview with Joe Rogan’s fake ass…after you fight, if you win, you gotta go and Joe Rogan’s gotta do an interview with you and most likely he’s been talking crap about you the whole time.
Damn, it seems that Rampage has joined Mario Yamasaki, Carlos Mencia (or whatever his real name is), and hecklers worldwide in the list of people who do not enjoy all that is The Joe Rogan Experience. Apparently Jackson’s dislike of Rogan comes from Joe’s somewhat biased perspective when commentating, especially when it comes to the Jiu-Jitsu game:
You know he’s got good jiu-jitsu because he’s so biased against jiu-jitsu guys. You can hear it in his voice. Whenever a guy is a jiu-jitsu fighter he’s playing rusty trombone. I don’t think you should talk down, you should be neutral. When I used to fight in PRIDE, watch Bas Rutten and Stephen Quadros on commentary. Those guys were my good friends and you couldn’t even tell when they were doing commentary. We hung out outside of work sometimes, we were good friends but when I fought they weren’t biased towards me. They did their job. They weren’t biased towards skills or anything like that. That’s the way it should be. Sometimes you can hear him because Joe Rogan has one of those girly high-ass voices. I just wanna tell him to shut the fuck up sometimes.
Although Rogan is far and away the most informative and well versed commentator out there, it is hard to deny the man’s bias when it comes to certain techniques and/or fights — Machida/Shogun 1 comes to mind. But Rogan’s commentary is merely a reflection of who he is as a human being; he pulls no punches and shoots from the hip. As a color commentator, it’s what he’s paid to do and is why most of us tend to enjoy his unique take on the sport. That said, does anyone agree with Rampage here?
While we’re on the subject of pulling no punches, Antonio Silva was recently interviewed by Brazil’s Portal do Vale Tudo, and when asked about the UFC 146 scheduled heavyweight title bout between Alistair Overeem and Junior Dos Santos, let his feelings be known about the former Strikeforce and Dream heavyweight champ:
*translation compliments of BloodyElbow*
A fight is a fight and anything can happen. They’re two very strong fighters, they’re at the top of their division but I don’t see how Overeem can beat Junior dos Santos. Overeem is (beating a lot of people), he’s a lion, but when (he gets hit) he becomes a kitty. When Junior first connects, Overeem’s spirit of a fighter will go to the dress room. I think it will be Junior with another knockout in his career.
Well, if Ubereem is a kitty, than that must mean Bigfoot is a narcoleptic goat.
-J. Jones