Filed under: UFC
DENVER — Quinton “Rampage” Jackson walked into the UFC 135 pre-fight press conference on Wednesday looking more irritated than upset.
Between the oddsmakers and fans who are counting him out of this weekend’s title fight entirely, to the grinning young champion who Jackson insists is too “cocky,” everywhere Jackson looks he finds another reason to scowl. Now that fight week is finally here, even that familiar gesture seems barely worth the effort to him.
“I don’t want to sit here and disrespect ‘Rampage…'” UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones said when asked how he sees Saturday night’s fight ending.
“Go ahead, Jon,” Jackson all but sighed into the microphone. “You’ve been doing it before.”
“You’ve been doing it, too,” Jones shot back. And he had a point. Only minutes earlier Jackson had talked about how much he enjoyed his training camp in Denver, where he visited the zoo and “made a friend” — a monkey that he said looked just like Jones.
Somehow, though, it didn’t seem to matter. Jackson and light heavyweight nemesis Rashad Evans have branded Jones as cocky and it seems to have stuck. Jones, not surprisingly, chalked it all up to fellow fighters looking for any insult they could find and their fans going along for the ride.
“It could have been any other word,” he said. As for claims from both Jackson and Evans that he puts on a phony persona in public, the champ insisted it was “funny” to him, saying, “a lot of people don’t even know me, so how do you know if I’m fake?”
If Jones is feeling good about his chances, there are plenty who think he has a reason to. The 24-year-old champion is as high as a 7-1 favorite against the 33-year-old Jackson, according to some oddsmakers. It’s a faith in the relatively untested Jones — or, if you prefer, a lack of confidence in the weary veteran Jackson — that UFC president Dana White called “crazy.”
“Seriously, all of us sitting here today, all the media and all of us who have been involved in the sport for as long as we have, do you honestly think that Rampage is a 5-1 underdog in this fight?” White said.
To hear the UFC boss tell it, this is exactly the kind of fight that Jackson needed to get his head right and his body ready. He’s been in Denver training at the Muscle Pharm gym for the last few months, which, at least to White, demonstrates a level of commitment to his preparation that Jackson hasn’t always been known for.
“Rampage is pretty miserable right now,” White said. “We were in the back…he’s pretty nasty for this fight. This is going to be an interesting fight. He hates Jon Jones. Hates him. He feels like he’s been disrespected and wants to win this fight. It’s good for Rampage. This is what Rampage needs.”
But as nice as it is to think that Jackson finally got fired up enough to train hard, that might not be enough against the young phenom Jones. The champion is taller, faster, and younger. At the press conference he showed off his Hollywood smile as he explained that he can take a shot better than most older fighters because he has a “fresh chin” that hasn’t been hammered by too many blows just yet.
“I’m a 24 year-old guy, still growing pubic hair,” he joked, explaining that he trains not get hit at all, rather than simply not getting hit hard. “I focus on things like evading and slipping and…”
Here, Jackson interrupted again, suggesting, “…and running.”
“I haven’t disrespected you, have I?” Jones asked.
“Not today,” Jackson replied.
But then, the day was still young. And when you’re looking for signs of disrespect around every corner, as Jackson seems to be, it never takes long before you find it.
It could be as simple as a smiling young opponent on the other side of the podium, joking with fans, mugging for cameras, looking as unconcerned about you as he was about any of the other challenges he’s faced and — at least so far — easily overcome. And why should he worry, when he’s never known anything but success in this business? Why should he think this time will be any different? How could he?