By now I’m sure we have heard the big news. At UFC 130 former Light Heavyweight Champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson will meet Matt “The Hammer” Hamill, in what will be the new main event. Both of these fighters co…
By now I’m sure we have heard the big news. At UFC 130 former Light Heavyweight Champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson will meet Matt “The Hammer” Hamill, in what will be the new main event. Both of these fighters could move up the light heavyweight ranks with a win. Jackson is coming off of a controversial win over […]
(Life: It’s more about the journey than whether you actually beat Travis Pastrana in arm wrestling. Pic: Zimbio)
Ah, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. At this point, we honestly don’t know if we should applaud the guy for his honesty or criticize him for continuing to waste everybody’s time. After conducting a lengthy interview with the former UFC light heavyweight champion recently wherein it becomes painfully apparent that the guy just can’t bring himself to be terribly dedicated to fighting anymore, maybe Five Knuckles says it best. As the MMA website quips in the very first line of its resulting story about Jackson: “You can call Quinton “Rampage” Jackson a lot of things, but dedicated isn’t necessarily one of them.”
Dude, ouch. Then again, that seems like a pretty apt description anymore. Heading into his upcoming bout with Matt Hamill at UFC 130, Rampage claims he’s training hard, but says he hasn’t bothered to chase down any film on Hamill and even admits he “doesn’t know a whole lot” about the guy. Really? You don’t know a whole lot about Matt Hamill? Interesting. Anyway, a bit later on Jackson flat out admits he’s just biding his time until he can find another movie role that will compensate him as much or more than his current UFC contract.
(Life: It’s more about the journey than whether you actually beat Travis Pastrana in arm wrestling. Pic: Zimbio)
Ah, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. At this point, we honestly don’t know if we should applaud the guy for his honesty or criticize him for continuing to waste everybody’s time. After conducting a lengthy interview with the former UFC light heavyweight champion recently wherein it becomes painfully apparent that the guy just can’t bring himself to be terribly dedicated to fighting anymore, maybe Five Knuckles says it best. As the MMA website quips in the very first line of its resulting story about Jackson: “You can call Quinton “Rampage” Jackson a lot of things, but dedicated isn’t necessarily one of them.”
Dude, ouch. Then again, that seems like a pretty apt description anymore. Heading into his upcoming bout with Matt Hamill at UFC 130, Rampage claims he’s training hard, but says he hasn’t bothered to chase down any film on Hamill and even admits he “doesn’t know a whole lot” about the guy. Really? You don’t know a whole lot about Matt Hamill? Interesting. Anyway, a bit later on Jackson flat out admits he’s just biding his time until he can find another movie role that will compensate him as much or more than his current UFC contract.
“As soon as movies start paying me more than I make to fight, I’m gone,” Jackson says. “It don’t hurt to make movies. It don’t hurt that bad. Every day I train. Every day I’m like, ‘Man, I can’t wait until I get another big movie’ … I don’t have the type of blood Randy Couture has. I give it up to him. I take my hate (sic) off to that guy, but I’m not that guy. I don’t plan on fighting until I’m 40. And I’m not Chuck Liddell. I’m not coming to work inside the UFC office when I retire. That’s not me. I’m an entertainer, I like making people laugh. I like doing movies, action moves and stuff like that. I might even try to be a comedian one day, who knows?”
Again, hard to blame the guy. Fighting is hard work and by comparison the movie business – with its trailers and craft services and production assistants who’ll just back down from any confrontation over who is the real “faggot” – probably seems like paradise. On the other hand, the very fact that being a fighter is so hard is precisely what makes Jackson’s admission that he doesn’t really like doing it anymore so troubling. Don’t know about you, but we’re not sure this is the right sport for half-assers. Conventional wisdom says that it’s going to be hard to continue to compete at MMA’s highest level when your level of deciation is in any way less than 100 percent. Not sure it’ll translate to those “exciting” fights everyone is always hungry for, either.
Oh, and also? Please God, for the love of all things sacred and holy, please never let “Rampage” Jackson get near a live microphone on a public stage in any kind of “comedic” type setting. That would just be bad news for everyone.
But anyway, by way of closing we’d like to leave you with one final quote from Jackson about his recently reported nightclub run-in with longtime rival Rashad Evans. While Jackson disputes the previously alleged version of the encounter – we’ll save you the details on that – he admits slapping Evans. Rampage just wants everyone to know that the whole thing was Rashad’s fault, since Rashad approached him when he’d been drinking. Hanging out in a night club. Just trying to be a human being.
“He wouldn’t rub me the wrong way if he wasn’t the one walk up to me in a night club, where I have to smack him,” Jackson says. “In a night club, most likely, I’d been drinking and that’s the worst time to get on my nerves …. If I’m in a night club and I’m kickin’ it with some girls and I’m on the dance floor, I’m just being a human being, don’t come bother me. Don’t come try and take a picture, don’t come ask me, don’t come challenge me and don’t say no B.S. to me … He knows the only reason he beat me is because I was rusty and I was injured.”
Think back to the summer of 2009. Rumors were swirling about the Ultimate Fighting Championship bringing its December pay per view, UFC 107, to the city of Memphis for its first UFC event. The original main event set was to be an ep…
Think back to the summer of 2009. Rumors were swirling about the Ultimate Fighting Championship bringing its December pay per view, UFC 107, to the city of Memphis for its first UFC event. The original main event set was to be an epic battle between the city’s native son, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and fellow Ultimate Fighter coach Rashad Evans. Tempers […]
Quinton “Rampage” Jackson has had one of the greatest careers in MMA history. He burst on to the Pride scene and took it by storm, starting his career with an impressive 19-3 record. Rampage is best known for his “powerbomb” sla…
Quinton “Rampage” Jackson has had one of the greatest careers in MMA history. He burst on to the Pride scene and took it by storm, starting his career with an impressive 19-3 record. Rampage is best known for his “powerbomb” slam against Ricardo Arona at Pride Critical Countdown 2004. Rampage defeated Chuck Liddell at UFC […]
Matt Hamill was not Quinton “Rampage” Jackson’s originally scheduled opponent for UFC 130. Jackson was signed to face Thiago Silva on the May 28 fight card, but when Silva’s UFC 125 drug test came back with questionable re…
Matt Hamill was not Quinton “Rampage” Jackson’s originally scheduled opponent for UFC 130. Jackson was signed to face Thiago Silva on the May 28 fight card, but when Silva’s UFC 125 drug test came back with questionable results, Hamill was brought in to face Jackson. There had been rumors that Jackson would face “Suga” Rashad […]
This is what Quinton “Rampage” Jackson is famous for—the power bomb. At Pride: Critical, Rampage unleashed the beast and went WWE on Ricardo Arona. Rampage was quickly on the ground with Arona. Then, stuck in a triangle choke, t…
This is what Quinton “Rampage” Jackson is famous for—the power bomb. At Pride: Critical, Rampage unleashed the beast and went WWE on Ricardo Arona. Rampage was quickly on the ground with Arona. Then, stuck in a triangle choke, the powerful Rampage picked up Arona and quickly slammed him onto the mat. Just a note to […]