Bleacher Report’s Sean Smith:
With his main event fight against Matt Hamill at UFC 130 drawing near, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson answered several questions regarding his preparations for his upcoming bout and other topics.
Prior to signing on to fight at UFC 130, Jackson had been offered a title shot against former UFC light heavyweight champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. However, Jackson turned down the opportunity and faced a lot of criticism from judgmental MMA fans.
“I’m a fighter and I’ve been fighting for a long time. I have common sense,” Jackson said. “I knew Shogun was going to have ring rust after taking a long time off after injury. There’s no way I could’ve took the fight on like four or five weeks notice. It’s no secret that I put on weight in between fights. I wouldn’t have even been able to make weight, so it would’ve been stupid for me to even try to do that.”
In his most recent fight, Jackson won in a controversial split decision against Lyoto Machida. Initially, Jackson seemed surprised by the decision, but “Rampage” expressed a different opinion on the UFC 130 conference call.
“I’m always surprised when judges give me a decision,” he said. “That’s one reason for the reaction with me being really silly, but I watched the fight. I think I did just enough to win.”
During his training camp for Hamill, Jackson has been without nutritionist Mike Dolce, who has provided a lot of help with Jackson’s weight management in the past. Despite the absence of Dolce, Jackson appears comfortable with his weight and condition.