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Rampage Jackson’s New Rape Video Isn’t Funny and He Should Be Punished

I don’t know why fighters think rape is funny.I’m painting with broad strokes, of course. Not all fighters think rape is a funny topic. But we’ve certainly seen our share of rape-related humor in recent months, with Forrest Griffin and Miguel Torres ta…

I don’t know why fighters think rape is funny.

I’m painting with broad strokes, of course. Not all fighters think rape is a funny topic. But we’ve certainly seen our share of rape-related humor in recent months, with Forrest Griffin and Miguel Torres taking up the majority of the limelight for their Twitter-related offenses.

And now, we have Quinton “Rampage” Jackson throwing his hat into the mix.

In the video posted above, Jackson:

Tells you that he’s going to show you how to pick up a “gurl,” and fast.
Reveals the tools of his trade: shoes, chloroform and zip ties.
Says he likes a particular parking garage because he knows the cameras won’t be on
Attacks a woman while wearing a ski mask.
The woman turns out to be a man.
The transvestite bites on Jackson’s erect penis, causing him a great deal of pain.
Jackson is forlorn that the woman ended up being a “damn dude.”

I understand that this is supposed to be funny and edgy. It’s neither.

When the basis of your comedy centers on rape, you’re not being funny. You’re being stupid.

This isn’t new territory for Jackson, either. His infamous motorboat incident with female MMA reporter Karyn Bryant was, according to Jackson and Bryant, supposed to be funny. That wasn’t funny, either. And who can forget the time Jackson dry-humped a female reporter in Japan? Yeah, that wasn’t funny.

Luke Thomas over at MMAFighting.com chimes in:

The video – from the concept to the execution – is prima facie bad. There is no defense of it, or none that put any premium on a sense of shame. This brings us back to the central question: why would Jackson participate in such a monstrosity? Between this video and his more recent history of dubious proclamations about a MMA future outside of the UFC, one has to consider he has seriously problematic judgment. Worse, it appears to be fed in part from a poor understanding of how he’s perceived and what’s required to successfully navigate career challenges.

And just in case you need a female perspective, here’s Donna from Gal’s Guide to MMA:

What’s so offensive about this, you ask? Well, the video boils down to a how-to on raping women, including using chloroform to help her relax, using zip ties, picking women who are in parking lots with malfunctioning cameras, and putting on your condoms, cause, safety first!

That’s the bottom line, I think. I realize this was supposed to be comedy. I realize that Jackson and the people at FilmOn.com had no intention of actually filming a how-to guide for raping women. It’s asinine to think otherwise.

But at the end of the day, this is still a video—starring a controversial UFC fighter with a history of making gay slurs and questionable antics with women—making light of rape. It doesn’t matter what Jackson and the filmmakers intended because the end result is a video that casts Jackson, and the UFC by association, in a bad light.

Forrest Griffin was reprimanded for his rape jokes on Twitter. Miguel Torres was fired for his. It’ll be interesting to see if Jackson faces any punishment for this regrettable video. Perhaps he’ll get his wish and be released from his UFC contract.

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Rashad Evans Analyzes Jon Jones’ Performance Against Rampage Jackson

The UFC’s weekly magazine-style show, UFC Ultimate Insider, has become a gold mine for fantastic exclusive content. That’s no surprise; it’s produced in conjunction with the UFC, after all, so they’re going to put their best foot forward and make it de…

The UFC’s weekly magazine-style show, UFC Ultimate Insider, has become a gold mine for fantastic exclusive content. That’s no surprise; it’s produced in conjunction with the UFC, after all, so they’re going to put their best foot forward and make it destination television for UFC fans around the world.

Host Jon Anik is a complete and utter pro, taking fans behind the scenes and giving them the kind of access they crave.

This week’s edition was more of the same. The UFC filmed Rashad Evans providing commentary during the UFC 135 bout between Jon Jones and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, and the footage has finally surfaced.

In the video, you can see Evans giving his take on Jackson’s game plan against Jones, who Evans will finally face at UFC 145 later this month.

A few takeaways from Evans’ commentary:

Evans repeatedly notes that Jackson is fighting from the wrong range against Jones. The light heavyweight champion has the longest reach in the UFC, and Jackson was obviously standing right at the end of Jones’ range instead of getting inside and trading punches. Evans says before the fight even begins that Jackson needs to be on Jones’ chest, fighting inside, and Jackson failed to do that. In hindsight, this was a major flaw in Jackson’s game plan.
Evans praised Jones’ flying triangle at the end of the second round, noting that it likely earned him points in what was a fairly close round up to that point.

It’s an interesting video. These are the kinds of things that I like to see from the UFC, and hopefully we’ll get more exactly like it in the future.

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Brock Lesnar’s UFC 141 Loss to Alistair Overeem Should Be Overturned

In the wake of yesterday’s news that Alistair Overeem tested positive for elevated testosterone during a random pre-fight drug test after the conclusion of a UFC 146 press conference, many people had one question: Would Overeem’s win over Brock Lesnar …

It’s a legitimate question. Overeem was granted a conditional license for that fight, a license that was predicated on him passing several random drug screenings in the months after the fight took place. Overeem failed the first of those random tests, so his license for UFC 141 shouldn’t count and the win should not have counted.

I asked Keith Kizer from the Nevada State Athletic Commission for his take on the subject.

“By itself, the test result has no effect on that decision,” Kizer said.

This is curious, isn’t it? By my thinking, Overeem’s license for the Lesnar fight was invalid due to the fact that Overeem failed one of his required post-fight random drug screenings.

I’m not saying that Lesnar should be granted a win over Overeem. Alistair was clean when the fight took place, and the result is the result. Overeem earned the win in the cage.

But Overeem also failed to live up to the stipulations of his conditional license, which means he—retroactively, of course—fought without a valid license in the state of Nevada. Because of that, his win over Lesnar should be turned into a no-contest.

It won’t help Lesnar’s new career in the WWE much, but it’s still the right thing to do.

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How Drugs Wrecked the Alistair Overeem vs Junior Dos Santos UFC Title Fight

I was happy in my own world—a blissful world filled with science fiction novels, Five Guys and awesome heavyweight UFC fights. In my world, a fighter like Alistair Overeem looks like a Greek statue because he has been blessed by God, Darwin and the vitamin-packed water of Holland. His muscles ripple because of his natural state of being—a state closer to Hercules than modern man.

Thanks, Nevada State Athletic Commission, for waking me up from a rather pleasant dream.

Now, I know it’s not fair to blame the messenger. After all, Overeem was the one caught red-handed, testing positive for a level of testosterone unheard of in mortals—even Lou Ferrigno or Arnold.

Intellectually, I know Overeem is the one who may very well cost fans an incredible heavyweight title fight at UFC 146. My brain is screaming at me that Nevada is not to blame. That Keith Kizer was just doing his job, conducting out of competition tests he’s been threatening for years.

But, darn it all, I wanted to see that fight.

I know we are supposed to be concerned about the scourge of PEDs and steroids. A thousand Mike Lupica segments on the Sports Reporters has taught us that much. But it’s really hard for me to muster up a care.

Are steroids harmful? Possibly. Probably. Maybe. Some would argue that under a doctor’s care, they can be safely regulated. And, if so, don’t we want fighters to be the best they possibly can be? The human ideal? Don’t we want them to recover more quickly from injury, to workout harder and to develop their bodies until it’s a weapon in the form of muscle and bone?

There’s a part of me that wants the UFC to go John L. Sullivan on us and put Overeem on a barge in international waters Police Gazette style. That’s how boxing got around the long arm of the law when it was illegal in the early 1900’s.

Of course, such a thing is completely out of the question.

The blessing of State Athletic Commissions is the great legitimizer for Dana White. It is a powerful argument in favor of the UFC’s very existence. Risking that in order for Alistair Overeem to train a little harder would be the height of foolishness.

If only for appearance sake, we need our sport to take a hard line against performance enhancers. I understand this.

But man, I really wanted to see that fight.

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Alistair Overeem and His Completely Inexcusable Drug Test Failure

The news that Alistair Overeem failed a surprise drug test after last Tuesday’s UFC 146 pre-fight press conference shouldn’t really surprise anyone. It simply confirms what everyone suspected all along—that you can’t really build a human body tha…

The steroid failure isn’t the surprise.

The shocking thing, at least to me, is that Overeem failed the drug test despite knowing that he would be the subject of random testing in the months leading up to his fight with Junior dos Santos. The Nevada State Athletic Commission made that abundantly clear when they granted him a conditional license for his fight with Brock Lesnar at UFC 141, a situation that only came about when Overeem conveniently left America on the same day the NSAC called and asked for a urine sample.

Overeem’s failure puts a question mark around the UFC 146 main event. UFC President Dana White noted today in a conference call with Canadian media members that he was beyond angry with Overeem (via The Star Phoenix):

I am beyond pissed about this, White said. I’m so (expletive) mad right now. How (expletive) stupid do you have to be? Seriously dumb. Anybody who’s using (performance-enhancing drugs) right now is an absolute (expletive) moron.

White also said that Overeem previously told he and UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta, while sitting in the UFC’s offices in Las Vegas, that he was drug-free and would pass any impending tests.

And yet he still failed.

And so what might have been another huge UFC main event, headlining a landmark card filled with heavyweight bouts, is simply out the window. Not due to injury, as is usually the case, but due to one fighter simply believing he was above the system. How else do you explain Overeem giving the NSAC the run-around prior to the Lesnar fight, getting away with it and winning the biggest fight of his career, only to turn around and start using performance-enhancing drugs?

It boggles my mind. I simply cannot understand what Overeem was thinking.

He knew he would be tested at least twice prior to his fight with Dos Santos. He knew those tests would be random. He knew he needed to stay clean in order to earn his title shot, and he knew that everyone in the world placed him under a microscope after December’s fiasco.

And yet he still failed.

This is not a man who is deserving of a title shot. I’m sure we’ll hear all kinds of excuses from Overeem, as we did during the December NSAC meeting when he explained how he was able to avoid taking a random drug test for nearly one month. We’ll hear about those evil tainted supplements and how they caused him to fail.

But the absolute bottom line is this: Overeem gloated about being the most-tested fighter in the sport.

He knew he would be randomly tested as soon as he had a public event in Las Vegas. He knew he needed to pass that test, for his own reputation and for the sake of the UFC, who put a ton of trust in him by giving him another main event after his run-around with the NSAC in December.

And yet he still failed.

That’s inexcusable. There’s no other way to put it.

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Rory MacDonald Says He’ll Fight Any Man in the UFC, but What About GSP?

There is little question that Rory MacDonald is one of the brightest shining stars in the UFC’s welterweight division, if not the entire UFC. At just 22 years old, the British Columbia native already finds himself nearing welterweight contention, and while a win over Che Mills at UFC 145 later this month doesn’t sound all that impressive, it might just be enough to thrust him headlong into the title mix.

Mills may seem like a step backwards for MacDonald, and that’s true in just about every way. Mills has one fight in the UFC and is literally an unknown fighter, and yet he’ll step into the cage for the co-main event of one of the biggest pay-per-views of the year. That seems a little strange to me.

But, to hear MacDonald tell it, he doesn’t really care who the opponent is, because he’ll fight anyone the UFC puts in front of him:

I’ll honestly fight whoever is put in front of me right now. That means Mike Pyle, Che Mills or Carlos Condit. It doesn’t make a difference to me. I’m confident of beating every man currently competing in the 170-pound division, and that’s the truth. I’m ready for them all.

There’s one name curiously omitted from that list of names, isn’t there? Where is Georges St-Pierre? You know, the UFC welterweight champion and the guy MacDonald will ostensibly face if he secures a title shot at some point in 2012?

I understand MacDonald’s omission of St-Pierre’s name. I don’t believe there’s much of a chance that MacDonald will face St-Pierre. Not now, not ever. They’re training partners, and MacDonald uprooted his life to move to Montreal and train with the best welterweight in the world. That sounds like an American Kickboxing Academy situation to me.

If MacDonald gets past Mills—and I fully expect him to do just that with relative ease—he’ll have some tough decisions to make. You can’t say you’ll fight anyone when you won’t fight the champion in your division, so that means he’ll need to vacate the division and head north or south.

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