UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones is hitting back at his next opponent, Rampage Jackson, after Jackson accused Jones of sending a spy into Jackson’s training camp.
Addressing Jackson directly via Twitter, Jones said he would never cheat because he has too much respect for mixed martial arts — and Jones suggested that makes himself different from Jackson.
“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 wrote. “It’s a way of life for me and I would never disrespect the integrity of that.”
Jones saying that Jackson is only in MMA for the money is a reaction to comments Jackson has made in the past about how he would quit MMA for acting if acting paid him better. Jackson briefly retired from MMA when he was given a role in The A-Team, but he returned to the sport when he found that there weren’t any more lucrative acting assignments coming his way.
“One of my friends was talking to Jon Jones’ manager recently, and Jon Jones’ manager was saying that he knows everything that is going on in our camp,” Jackson said. “He said he had spies in our camp and he knew everything that was going on. That got me thinking.”
Jones’ manager Malki Kawa says Jackson’s accusations are ridiculous.
“I promise to God, I have no spy in that camp,” Kawa told Yahoo. “It’s completely and totally untrue. There is nothing to it at all. It’s funny he said that, though, because we’ve heard he has had old training partners of Jon coming in to work with him. We don’t care and it’s kind of hilarious he’s doing this.”
For his part, Jones says that now that he’s responded to Jackson’s accusation, he’s not going to give it another thought. And he told Jackson on Twitter that he looks forward to meeting him in the Octagon.
“Believe me or not, I’ve said my part,” Jones said. “Hoping you have a safe and healthy finish to your camp.”
Jones and Jackson will fight for the light heavyweight title on Sept. 24.
UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones is hitting back at his next opponent, Rampage Jackson, after Jackson accused Jones of sending a spy into Jackson’s training camp.
Addressing Jackson directly via Twitter, Jones said he would never cheat because he has too much respect for mixed martial arts — and Jones suggested that makes himself different from Jackson.
“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 wrote. “It’s a way of life for me and I would never disrespect the integrity of that.”
Jones saying that Jackson is only in MMA for the money is a reaction to comments Jackson has made in the past about how he would quit MMA for acting if acting paid him better. Jackson briefly retired from MMA when he was given a role in The A-Team, but he returned to the sport when he found that there weren’t any more lucrative acting assignments coming his way.
“One of my friends was talking to Jon Jones’ manager recently, and Jon Jones’ manager was saying that he knows everything that is going on in our camp,” Jackson said. “He said he had spies in our camp and he knew everything that was going on. That got me thinking.”
Jones’ manager Malki Kawa says Jackson’s accusations are ridiculous.
“I promise to God, I have no spy in that camp,” Kawa told Yahoo. “It’s completely and totally untrue. There is nothing to it at all. It’s funny he said that, though, because we’ve heard he has had old training partners of Jon coming in to work with him. We don’t care and it’s kind of hilarious he’s doing this.”
For his part, Jones says that now that he’s responded to Jackson’s accusation, he’s not going to give it another thought. And he told Jackson on Twitter that he looks forward to meeting him in the Octagon.
“Believe me or not, I’ve said my part,” Jones said. “Hoping you have a safe and healthy finish to your camp.”
Jones and Jackson will fight for the light heavyweight title on Sept. 24.
The old adage when it comes to a traitor among friends is called a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” but given that Quinton “Rampage” Jackson trains out of Wolfslair MMA Academy, it seems there may be.
The old adage when it comes to a traitor among friends is called a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” but given that Quinton “Rampage” Jackson trains out of Wolfslair MMA Academy, it seems there may be a spy disguised as a loyal Wolf teammate. Rampage claimed to Yahoo Sports! that he made up a hand injury that he only spoke of in his gym when four hours later, his manager, Anthony McGann received a phone call concerning the “injury” from Joe Silva . When McGann assured Silva the hand was fine, he asked who had informed him of the injury, to which Silva replied, it was Jon Jones‘ manager, Malki Kawa. Rampage says:
One of my friends was talking to Jon Jones’ manager recently, and Jon Jones’ manager was saying that he knows everything that is going on in our camp. He said he had spies in our camp and he knew everything that was going on. That got me thinking. How did he know about my hand injury that fast? It wasn’t on the Internet, and yet he knew about my hand injury right away. The UFC people were in Brazil, which is why it probably took them four hours to call me.
That shows me two things: They have spies in my camp, one, and two, they’re dumb as hell, because they didn’t know how to use the information correctly and to wait. He called right away, running to Joe Silva. Joe Silva called my manager right away.”
Rampage made up the hand injury story after receiving a message from someone via Twitter that Jones had a spy in Rampage’s camp. Coincidentally enough, Jones’ manager, Kawa disputes he has any spies and that he only learned of a hand injury via Twitter. Kawa claims:
“I promise to God, I have no spy in that camp,” Kawa said. “It’s completely and totally untrue. There is nothing to it at all. It’s funny he said that, though, because we’ve heard he has had old training partners of Jon coming in to work with him. We don’t care and it’s kind of hilarious he’s doing this. But I can guarantee you there is nothing at all that is true about this other than that I called Joe Silva after someone put out a thing on Twitter that Rampage was injured and pulling out. I wanted to know what was up, but it was no more than that. That is it.”
Rampage, who feels betrayed and thinks he knows who the spy is, doesn’t want to call out the person, but he does want this story out for the fans to respond via Twitter. Rampage said : “Of course they’re going to say they aren’t doing it, but we’ll put the story out there to the fans and let them decide.” He says he wants fans to send him messages via Twitter on whether or not they believe Jones has a spy.
Sounds like a Twitter bonus could be in Rampage’s future and an army of Rampage Twitter fans may help get into Jones’ head. Ah… the many useful wonders of social media.
With UFC 134 in the books, all eyes are pointed toward Jon Jones’ first title defense at UFC 135.He was originally slated to face Rashad Evans at UFC 133, but that fight was scrapped when Jones thought he had to have surgery on his hand. Evans en…
With UFC 134 in the books, all eyes are pointed toward Jon Jones’ first title defense at UFC 135.
He was originally slated to face Rashad Evans at UFC 133, but that fight was scrapped when Jones thought he had to have surgery on his hand. Evans ended up signing up to fight Phil Davis instead, and Jones signed up to fight Rampage just two events later.
Will Jones handle Rampage the same way he handled Rua and Bader before him, or will Rampage put an abrupt end to the Jon Jones hype train with his first knockout in years?
(“Was it you, Bisping or was it you, Tiki? I bet it was Arianny. She always seems like she be hidin’ somethin’.”)
Hopefully we’re way off, but if his recent bizarre accusations are any indicator of his current frame of mind, Quinton Jackson might be just a few energy drinks and consecutive screenings of “The Secret” away from playing monster truck smash-up derby again.
In an interview with Kevin Iole from Yahoo! Sports yesterday, “Rampage” revealed that he believes someone within his training camp is a mole and although he isn’t naming names, he hinted that it’s a sparring partner.
(“Was it you, Bisping or was it you, Tiki? I bet it was Arianny. She always seems like she be hidin’ somethin’.”)
Hopefully we’re way off, but if his recent bizarre accusations are any indicator of his current frame of mind, Quinton Jackson might be just a few energy drinks and consecutive screenings of “The Secret” away from playing monster truck smash-up derby again.
In an interview with Kevin Iole from Yahoo! Sports yesterday, “Rampage” revealed that he believes someone within his training camp is a mole and although he isn’t naming names, he hinted that it’s a sparring partner.
According to the former UFC light heavyweight champion, someone in his close circle is feeding information to his opponents. For example, he says that in spite of the fact that he managed to keep a knee injury he sustained during training camp for his UFC 114 bout with Rashad Evans under the radar from the media, during the bout, “Suga” seemed to target the injury site.
“In all my years of fighting, I’d never been punched in the knee before and I never saw anyone punch someone in the knee,” he said.
Evans, however says that it was simply a case of him feeding off of his opponent’s reaction to a shot and when Rampage let out a moan when the first punch hit his knee, he continued to attack the area.
“I never heard a thing about [him injuring his knee]. I heard him talk about it after the fight. I didn’t know about it going into the fight. When I had him against the cage, I kept hitting him in the knee because of how he was reacting, not because anybody told me anything prior. When you’re in a fight, you just go for what you can get a reaction from,” Evans explains. “I’d punch him in the toe if I felt it was bothering him. We were leaning against the cage and it was really hard to take him down from there. I really couldn’t do much to him and he couldn’t do much to me. I wanted to keep the position and so I didn’t want the referee to break us. So I had to keep looking busy and I saw it was bothering him, so I kept hitting him in his leg. That was it.”
Still, Jackson says he is convinced that someone close to him is playing the part of a spy for the enemy.
When he became suspicious that there was a traitor in his midst, he created a story that he injured his hand to try to smoke out the wrongdoer and only told a select few of his training partners whom he suspected as being the guilty party. Within a few hours he received a call from Brazil from UFC matchmaker Joe Silva inquiring about the seriousness of the injury. He had received a call from Jon Jones’ manager, Malki Kawa, who informed him about Jackson’s ailment. Adding to Jackson’s paranoia is the fact that Kawa proclaimed that he knows Jackson’s every move and that he had people in place to tell him what his gameplan is and what he is working on for his UFC 135 showdown with Jones on September 24.
Kawa chalks it up to gamesmanship and says he read about Jackson’s alleged injury on Twitter and wanted to check on the story’s legitimacy. With the number of people on the social media site, it isn’t outside the realm of possibility that someone overheard the news about Jackson’s injury in the gym and decided to play the part of an MMA news-breaker.
“I promise to God, I have no spy in that camp,” Kawa assures. “It’s completely and totally untrue. There is nothing to it at all. It’s funny he said that, though, because we’ve heard he has had old training partners of Jon coming in to work with him. We don’t care and it’s kind of hilarious he’s doing this. But I can guarantee you there is nothing at all that is true about this other than that I called Joe Silva after someone put out a thing on Twitter that Rampage was injured and pulling out. I wanted to know what was up, but it was no more than that. That is it.”
It happens all the time. But Jackson isn’t buying it, which could make for a very uncomfortable next few weeks with his entire camp being suspects.
“One of my friends was talking to Jon Jones’ manager recently, and Jon Jones’ manager was saying that he knows everything that is going on in our camp. He said he had spies in our camp and he knew everything that was going on. That got me thinking. How did he know about my hand injury that fast? It wasn’t on the Internet, and yet he knew about my hand injury right away,” Jackson point out. “The UFC people were in Brazil, which is why it probably took them four hours to call me. That shows me two things: They have spies in my camp, one, and two, they’re dumb as hell, because they didn’t know how to use the information correctly and to wait. He called right away, running to Joe Silva. Joe Silva called my manager right away.”
In spite of his suspicions, Jackson says he won’t name names even if he catches the spy red handed.
“I don’t do that,” Jackson says. “That will be between me and him. I would never out him publicly.”
Hopefully the distraction, which is working better than Jones’ camp could have dreamed, doesn’t affect his performance against the dominant champion.
“Of course they’re going to say they aren’t doing it, but we’ll put the story out there to the fans and let them decide,” Jackson says. “I don’t care what Jon Jones is doing, and I don’t care what his game plan is. I have zero care. I still have the honor of a fighter and going into battle the right way, not spying on my opponent. I’m not scared about my opponent, asking a lot of questions or worrying about what he’s doing. I don’t even watch film.”
On September 24, the youngest champion in UFC history, Jon “Bones” Jones, will defend his belt for the first time against former light heavyweight champ Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. When these two get into the cage, there will, undoubtedly, be fireworks …
On September 24, the youngest champion in UFC history, Jon “Bones” Jones, will defend his belt for the first time against former light heavyweight champ Quinton “Rampage” Jackson.
When these two get into the cage, there will, undoubtedly, be fireworks as both men are prone to their stand-up.
Jackson believes people are afraid to stand with him because of his dangerous boxing, but Jones is not one of those people.
Even though Jackson has been in the UFC since 2007 and has beaten some of the best fighters in the world, he is actually the underdog against the young Jones.
Jones is a complete MMA fighter and Jackson has not been the same fighter since he decided to begin a career in the movie business and let everyone know of his plans to soon retire.
However, this does not stop Rampage from wanting to recapture the belt he lost back in 2008 to Forrest Griffin and to show that he is still one of the top fighters in the world.
He will face a tough test in Jones, who’s title victory back in March was one of the most one-sided title fights in UFC history.
Jones embarrassed then champion Mauricio Shogun Rua and made winning the belt look easy.
“Bones” is a new breed of mixed martial arts that is slowly causing legends in the sport, like Rampage, to pass the torch. Just don’t tell Rampage that.
This fight should be exciting for a lot of reasons, but here are five reasons to watch the fight.
There’s a lot of advantages to having 90% —at least— of mixed martial art’s top talent fighting in your promotion. Perhaps the most significant of which is that there are always a ton of interesting fights on the horizon.If you’re a fan of …
There’s a lot of advantages to having 90% —at least— of mixed martial art’s top talent fighting in your promotion. Perhaps the most significant of which is that there are always a ton of interesting fights on the horizon.
If you’re a fan of MMA, there are few things as exciting as taking a look at the UFC’s upcoming events and knowing that you have months upon months of awesome fights ahead.
So, for all you MMA enthusiasts out there, in order to bring some excitement into your day, let’s take a look at the 25 most interesting fights on the UFC’s horizon…
UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones is hitting back at his next opponent, Rampage Jackson, after Jackson accused Jones of sending a spy into Jackson’s training camp.
