(We’ll start designing the poster for “Nemesis Fighting: Rampage vs. Jardine 2.”)
After some frustrated tweeting over the last week, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson took his anti-UFC campaign to Inside MMA, telling Bas Rutten that he wants to part ways with the promotion due to the way he’s been treated. Plus, Joe Silva needs to get slapped in his smart little mouth. You can listen to the full interview at the end of this post. Here are some highlights…
On the fans and his soon-to-be-ex-employers: “I don’t want to fight for the UFC no more. I think the fans don’t understand. They think that just because I make a lot of money, I should be happy because I’ve got a nice house. I’ve always stated that I fight for money because it’s my career, but I think a lot of fans are sheep, and they don’t understand…I wish I didn’t have one more fight for [the UFC]. I’m trying to get out of this one fight…In my opinion, I think they’re trying to make me lose my fanbase. Because they don’t want me to be bigger than the UFC, because the movie I did was bigger than the UFC…I don’t want to be part of the UFC. If Dana doesn’t want me to be bigger than the UFC, then let me go.”
On disrespect: “After my fight with Jon Jones they told my manager that I was losing my appeal — that rappers don’t come and watch me fight no more, that the fans really don’t like me no more. Cause it was getting close to time for me to renegotiate and PRIDE did the same thing to me. To me my respect is more than money so I’ll go fight for some other show for free and I’ll prove it to fans that I’m not all about money.”
On matchmaking: ”I think Joe Silva needs to be slapped in the face. I’m sorry, but if you’ve got a fighter like me who likes to go out and put on exciting fights why are you gonna keep giving me wrestlers who are gonna take me down and hump me?”
On how green the grass looks on the other side of the street: ”I’m gonna go to an organization that gives me a little clout…anywhere, as long as I’ve got a little clout and I can control it a little bit and the guys appreciate me for putting on a good show. Just say thank you at the end of the show. I don’t care if I make $500 again.”
But seriously, he should be getting paid more: ”The UFC talks about being in a billion homes. They’re making all this money. Yet I’m making less money than I used to make with the UFC. The UFC is getting bigger, which means I’m getting bigger, but I’m making less money. Why? So I just don’t want to be with them no more. Slavery is done. If anybody thinks that I can’t make my own career choices and stuff like that, then you’re a bigot. I can do whatever the hell I want to do. I’m a grown man. I don’t want to have to fight for somebody no more if they’re not really appreciating me.”
On British journalists and our country’s impossibly complicated health-care system: “I did an interview with this one guy, and he recorded it. I thought he was going to put it up just like you’re doing. But no, he took some of it and typed it, and the guy who typed it was a British guy. He didn’t understand my English. He didn’t understand my accent. He just typed some stuff that he thought I said, which is wrong. I think they tried to say that I had like a UFC doctor give it to me or something like that, which is wrong. I had my personal doctor. He gets paid by the UFC. He’s my personal doctor, but I don’t have to pay him. ‘He just sends the bill’ to UFC basically is what I said. So that’s why I said the UFC knew I was hurt. I don’t know if the UFC knew what I was doing. But the UFC paid (for) me to see him. He sent me to another doctor. The doctor that he sent me to, I pay him. The UFC doesn’t pay the doctor who did the TRT. I pay that TRT. But the doctor who takes care of me, the UFC pays him.”