UFC 135 is on the horizon and the tension and trash talk that started between Jon “Bones” Jones and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson during the mid-July press conference for the fight card is quickly ratcheting up.Jones will make his f…
UFC 135 is on the horizon and the tension and trash talk that started between Jon “Bones” Jones and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson during the mid-July press conference for the fight card is quickly ratcheting up.
Jones will make his first defense of the UFC light heavyweight title on September 24, when he meets Jackson, the former champion, inside the Octagon at Denver’s Pepsi Center.
When the two step in, to face each other all the trash talk, all the tweets, all the accusations of just being in it for the money, the jibes to grow up, will be in the past and what will be on the line is Jones’ title. The title that Jones captured in March by dominating Mauricio Rau, the title he will be defending for the first time. The same title that was once held by Rampage, the title that he has repeatedly, referred to as “his,” the title he so desperately wants to regain.
Expect, more words to be exchanged as the fight nears, expect a grudge match in Denver.
On the most recent episode of The MMA Hour, Ariel Helwani was joined by Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, who will be fighting Jon Jones at UFC 135: Jones vs. Rampage.Just after mentioning that he’s “having a great camp and training really hard”, Rampage disc…
On the most recent episode of The MMA Hour, Ariel Helwani was joined by Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, who will be fighting Jon Jones at UFC 135: Jones vs. Rampage.
Just after mentioning that he’s “having a great camp and training really hard”, Rampage discussed his recent accusations of Jon Jones planting a mole within Team Wolfslair. Rampage mentioned that he hasn’t removed anyone from his camp, but that he “feels flattered” that Jon Jones had to employ the use of spies.
Still, Rampage hasn’t concerned himself very much with these recent developments and “feels very confident” in this fight, despite “a lot of people counting [him] out.”
Jackson explained that he was informed of a spy via Twitter. After that point, he faked an injury to his hand in order to see if the news would leak. According to Rampage, shortly after, he was contacted by Joe Silva who had been contacted by Jon Jones’ management, asking about his hand.
It’s impossible to know if any of this information is reliable, but Jackson promises to out the spy on Twitter when he determines who it is.
Then, Rampage was his usual controversial self, calling host Ariel Helwani “an asshole for asking about [Wolfslair teammate] Cheick Kongo.” Apparently, Rampage was offended that Helwani asked if the Pat Barry fight should have been stopped after Kongo was repeatedly knocked down.
Helwani and Jackson moved on, agreeing to play nice as long as Rampage refrained from calling the journalist “big nose” and Helwani made sure his shoes matched his tie.
Needless to say, it was a typical Rampage interview. Jackson ended by mentioning that he’s happy to go into this fight the underdog and that he captured the belt from Chuck Liddell as an underdog and is prepared to do it again.
Given his recent track record in the UFC thus far, there is no telling how successful Jon Jones could become. Following his win over Mauricio “Shogun” Rua at UFC 128, most critics have predicted he will have a lengthy reign as champion, and that h…
Given his recent track record in the UFC thus far, there is no telling how successful Jon Jones could become.
Following his win over Mauricio “Shogun” Rua at UFC 128, most critics have predicted he will have a lengthy reign as champion, and that he will compete in a potential superfight with UFC Middleweight champion, Anderson Silva.
However, he is only 24 years-old and has a whole career ahead of him, one that seems as unpredictable as any. But Jones said when his career is over one day, he would like to be remembered for more than just his skill and dominance.
“When I’m grey and old I wanna be remembered as the fighter who was a god-fearing man, someone who was opinionated and not afraid to be himself,” Jones told FightersOnly.co.uk.
“I wanna be remembered as an all-time great who took his best days by the balls and made his own story.”
While presenting himself in a humble and respectful manner, the young champion has a lot to be grateful for, and fans have yet to see a dominant reign over the light heavyweight division since Chuck Liddell.
Jones could fill that void.
He will look to establish his legacy when he meets UFC veteran, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, at UFC 135.
Filed under: UFC, MMA Fighting Exclusive, NewsJust days after accusing his future foe’s camp of spying on him in his UFC 135 training sessions, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson told MMA Fighting on Thursday that he is unconcerned by the possible presence of a…
Just days after accusing his future foe’s camp of spying on him in his UFC 135 training sessions, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson told MMA Fighting on Thursday that he is unconcerned by the possible presence of a mole, and that he has yet to remove anyone from his camp.
Appearing on The MMA Hour from his camp in Denver, Jackson detailed the circumstances that led him to question if he had a traitor in his midst relaying secrets to UFC light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones‘ camp. Jackson said he had a similar feeling in 2010 when he prepared for his bout with Rashad Evans, but had no problems while preparing for recent bouts with Lyoto Machida and Matt Hamill.
Jackson said that in recent days, at least one comment made by Jones on Twitter reflected the goings-on in his camp. As a result, Jackson decided to put his team to the test, faking a hand injury at the end of a sparring session.
Within four hours, he says that UFC matchmaker Joe Silva had called his manager Anthony McGann, to ask about his hand. Jackson said that Silva told him Jones’ manager Malki Kawa had raised concern about the hand, saying he had read about it on Twitter.
Jackson, though, says that his team searched Twitter and couldn’t find a single mention of a hand injury. In fact, he says they searched the entire web and couldn’t find any information about a potential hand injury in this specific camp.
Despite his ongoing belief that someone fed the information to Jones’ camp, Jackson has not made any changes to his training team.
“I have a few ideas who the mole is,” he said. “There’s a bunch of people it can be. I don’t want to point fingers. I’m not saying who it was. But whoever it is, I hope they believe in karma.”
Jackson said he wasn’t accusing of Jones or his camp of intentionally sending a spy into his camp, but that it seemed clear someone was sending them information nonetheless. Jones and Kawa have denied any allegations of wrongdoing, though both declined invitations to appear on The MMA Hour to give their sides of the story.
Given the high-profile nature of the fight, the “Spygate” issue isn’t likely to subside anytime soon, even though Jackson seems ready to turn the page, even saying he was “kind of flattered” that such lengths are being taken.
“At the end of the day, I don’t care,” he said. “I’m very confident in this fight. You guys have no idea. A lot of people have counted me out in this fight, and I love it. I’m happy. It’s like when I fought Chuck Liddell to get the title. No one counted me in. I’m OK with it. Jon Jones can set up camp and watch me train, for all I care because he won’t be able to stop what I’m going to do to him.”
While Jackson’s camp is private, he has brought in a group of fighters to help him prepare, and he believes it’s possible one of them could have ties to Jones’ team. He said when each sparring partner arrives, he asks them not to release any information about the camp in any way, including social media platforms, a requirement he said he feels he has the right to ask since he is paying them.
As for the fight itself, Jackson says all the pressure is on Jones as the new champion to defend his belt and continue his forward momentum while in the spotlight. He also says he won’t be frozen by fear of failure, an issue that sometimes gets the best of even the world’s top athletes. He also said that even if Jones comes hard at him, he’s shown he can stand up to some punishment before returning fire. Whether there’s an infiltrator in his camp or it’s mole-free, Jackson said on September 24, he’ll be ready.
“I don’t care about this spy in my camp,” he said. “He, she or it can keep watching me, whoever it is. I’m training hard. I’m very confident. It ain’t no secret that I’m going to try to throw these hands on Jon Jones. I’m pretty sure one, two, or three of my punches are going to land. I’m going to make them count every time they do. I’m just training my ass off for anything.”
UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones and his next opponent Quinton “Rampage” Jackson have been firing back and forth at each other, verbally, because of Rampage’s claim that Jones has a spy in his camp.The quarreling seems to have reached a boiling…
UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones and his next opponent Quinton “Rampage” Jackson have been firing back and forth at each other, verbally, because of Rampage’s claim that Jones has a spy in his camp.
The quarreling seems to have reached a boiling point, with Rampage posting this tweet late last night:
“@Jonnybones yeah I keep it real,I fight 4 $ cause I hate training,but I love giving ass whoopins,and ill b giving 1 on the 24th,btw grow up!”
Within this tweet, Rampage has made the promise that he will give Jones an “ass whoopin” when they meet at UFC 135, which takes place on September 24.
However, one has to wonder if there is any bite behind Rampage’s bark.
It’s been a while since he has looked really good against a top-level opponent and earlier this year he defeated Matt Hamill, but his victory came via decision.
In Hamill’s next fight, he was finished in the first round by Alexander Gustafsson, who isn’t even a top-10 light heavyweight.
So, if a barely-known fighter was able to finish a fighter that he couldn’t, does Rampage stand a realistic chance of defeating the No. 1 light heavyweight in the world today?
Probably not.
Rampage seems motivated for this fight, which is something we haven’t seen in a while, but I doubt that motivation will be enough to carry him through to victory.
Jones is arguably the most well-rounded fighter in the light heavyweight division and Rampage isn’t much more than a boxer these days.
Rampage also had a hard time dealing with the wrestling of Rashad Evans, and from what we’ve seen, Jones has more dominant takedowns than Evans does.
Apart from the wrestling advantage, Jones also has a significant reach advantage and a more complete arsenal of strikes.
Realistically, the only things Rampage has going for him are his punching power and maybe superior boxing technique.
The way things are looking, Jones seems to be the future of MMA and Rampage is one of few old-school fighters still surviving on a one-dimensional skill set.
There is always the chance that Rampage could land a solid punch and win this fight, but the smart money would bet on Jones being the one distributing an “ass-whoopin” on September 24.
Andrew Barr is a Featured Columnist for Bleacherreport.com. For updates on what’s happening in the world of MMA, follow him on Twitter http://twitter.com/#!/AndrewBarr8
If there wasn’t any feud between Quinton Jackson and Jon Jones prior to their upcoming title bout at UFC 135, there is one now. Following Jackson’s accusations of his opponent’s camp allegedly spying on him, Jones immediately responded back with s…
If there wasn’t any feud between Quinton Jackson and Jon Jones prior to their upcoming title bout at UFC 135, there is one now.
Following Jackson’s accusations of his opponent’s camp allegedly spying on him, Jones immediately responded back with some less than kind words for “Rampage” via Twitter.
“Just so you know, I’m not a person who looks for shortcuts in life. Unlike you, MMA is not something I do because of money,” Jones said.
Judging by his comments, it’s no surprise that Jackson would respond with some choice words of his own.
“Yeah I keep it real, I fight 4 $ cause I hate training, but I love giving ass whoopins, and ill b giving 1 on the 24th, btw grow up!,” he posted.
While the war of words continues to escalate between the two light heavyweights, it is promising to be one of the most anticipated fights of the year. Jones has been making some enemies as of late, and it is interesting to note how he is able to verbally spar with both Jackson and Rashad Evans.
Evans, who will meet the winner between Jones and Jackson, has done his best to stay out of the spotlight while Jones prepares for his first title defense, however, it is Jones who is the one seemingly finding time to multi-task.
Whether it is a good thing or not, it surely makes for some intriguing rivalries along the way and gives Jones the proverbial target on his back in the light heavyweight division.
UFC 135 is on the horizon and the tension and trash talk that started between Jon “Bones” Jones and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson during the mid-July press conference for the fight card is quickly ratcheting up.
Just days after accusing his future foe’s camp of spying on him in his