Former UFC light heavyweight titleholder and coach of the tenth season of The Ultimate Fighter, Quinton Rampage Jackson is featured in the December edition of Playboy.
Jackson sat down with Playboy for their 20 Questions column where he claims he'll never fight again. He also discusses his dislike of coaching on "The Ultimate Fighter" and answers questions about his arrest last year.
The friction between Rashad and Rampage continues to escalate. Check it out on the sneak preview of tonight's episode of The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights...
During a media conference call on Monday, Kimbo Slice, having participated as a fighter on Quinton "Rampage" Jackson's team on the current season of The Ultimate Fighter, was questioned about his coaches decision to walk away from the UFC to pursue a career in acting. Rampage has landed a role on the remake of the popular 1980s series The A-Team.
"He’s not walking away from the UFC," said Kimbo. "Rampage, he’s chasing his career right now.
"Fighting was his job; that was his thing. That was his bread and butter. Rampage, he’s an actor as well. He’s a good actor. Right now, he’s just putting fighting on hold."
It's a little difficult to say whether that's accurate or not. Rampage hasn't said as much. So far, he's just declared that he is done fighting. Done with the arguing and name-calling and criticism from both his bosses and a faction of fight fans that have put him down.
Instead, he's headed to the welcoming arms of Hollywood where no such drama exists... right?
"I feel like my second career could be in jeopardy.. so I'm done fighting. I've been getting negative reviews from the dumb ass fans that don't pay my bills or put my kids though college," he said in a recent blog post announcing his decision.
"I still feel the UFC is a great organization and I felt like I was very loyal to them, but they didn't respect my loyalty, but I wish the UFC the best. I did a lot of things for them. I wish no bad blood between us, but I have kids and a family back in Memphis to provide for and that's all that matters to me."
From where he sits, Kimbo doesn't blame Rampage at all. In fact, were he in the same shows, he would do pretty much the same thing. And with the type of noteriaty that Kimbo has built up, it's not at all a stretch to think he might wind up with exactly the same choices to make.
"If I had an opportunity to be a star in a movie or whatever, or make some good money or whatever, I would definitely put my fights on hold for a minute and do that, pursue my career," he said on Monday. "I would probably still do my fight in December, but I would have done them both."
The following is a blog post taken from Quinton "Rampage" Jackson's personal blog addressing the fallout over his decision to retire from fighting:
"Make no mistake the UFC treated me a lot better than Pride. If you get hurt in training in a UFC fight then will send you to the best doctors. If you get hurt in a Pride fight most of the time they will tell me "oh you better take care of that!" The UFC will always let you know in a timely matter who you will be fighting & give you enough time to train but with Pride if I knew 4 weeks ahead I would be happy cause most times they just give you a 2 weeks notice. Pride will rip you off on your merchandising but the UFC would find someway to hook you up on merchandising deals. Pride will make fights easier for certain fighters inside the ring (like standing up fights early). With the UFC whatever happens happens. The only thing I see the UFC needs to fix in this area is to get better judges. Ones who know about MMA & not from the boxing world.
"The reason why I'm talking about all this is that I feel like this whole situation could have been avoided if UFC would have respected me more & rescheduled the fight about a month or more in my hometown, which I know fights can be rescheduled because of the Matt Hughes & Matt Serra was postponed due to injuries. Instead, Dana went on the internet & started talking bad about my decision. All we had to do was come to a certain type of argreement or understanding, which later came after a lot of trash talk from Dana. My manager flew to Vegas & talked to them & tried to work things out like a MAN. & still I keep quite & I didn't talk trash back on the internet. The only reason why I'm even talking now is because I feel like I owe my fans an explanation because I am a MAN, a real MAN. Yeah I made good money with the UFC more than Pride, but I made both shows more money than they made me. I didn't care too much about Pride treating me like crap cause I was an American in a Japanese company. Now in my own country, I feel like I'm being disrepected. Everything is not about how much money you make. You could be the richest man in the world but if nobody repsects you then it don't mean shit. You can't buy respect. It should be earned. & thats what I'm all about.
"Now Rashad wanna put his two cents in. Rashad remains to be a boy under me. He wins a few fights, and some of them I thought the judges fell asleep during the fight & woke up & saw him playing with his nipples & guessed he won. He knocked Chuck Liddel out when Chuck wasn't even the same man anymore. & now he thinks he's on my level. Yeah he talks about how he beat Forrest & I lost. But when I fought Forrest that was the worst Rampage I had ever seen. & I still know in my heart I won that fight. So now he's Mr. All Cocky & says I got a big mouth & talk a lot of smack. If my memory serves me correctly, he's the one that got into my face after the Jardine fight & started talking trash when he was the one that was originally supposed to fight me that night, but he told Dana on the phone he didn't want to fight. He wanted to keep his belt longer. Now, I'm not saying wether or not I would have beaten Machida, but I wouldn't have went out like a bitch like the way he did. So I'm the one that was looking forward to the Rashad fight the most. I have always been a fighter my whole life. As a kid my family treated me like shit which made me the person who I am today. This is why when I meet people I treat people the way I want to be treated (unless they approach me wrong or piss me off). I grew up thinking that I wasn't even important to my family which made me not even care about myself. That's why I can get knee-ed in the face 15 times & come back for more. That's why I can get my legs seriously hurt in a fight & still try to win. Thats why I can get my ribs broken in a fight & not tap out because my whole life I never thought I mattered to anybody or anybody cared about me. But now I have kids that love me & care about me & I'm not used to people caring about me but it feels good! I'm a very loyal person. Wolves are the most loyal animals on the planet. I was very loyal to the UFC, but now I owe all my loyalty to my kids... the ones who really care for me. The majority of my fights on the street I fought for free & they all were with emotion. I am a fighter, I will always be a fighter but my professional fights that were fought with emotion, I ended them all in devestating fashion. I am the wrong fighter that should fight pissed off professionally. I don't even consider it fair. So Rashad says he will fight me for free. I will gladly meet him at any gym & fight him just to shut his mouth up. & I mean that for real!
"When I told Dana I did not want my belt back & that I just wanted to make money, it was around the time when they gave me Vanderlei & actually it was around the same time when my mind wasn't right (my mind was at TRUCK status) & that's the way I felt because I felt I had been robbed out of my belt. After the Jardine fight I did want my belt back because my family was so proud of me when I was champion & I want to make my family proud cause now I finally feel like my family cares about me & they accept me & this is what I've been wanting my whole childhood... for my family to like me. If I got to beat some ass for my family to like me, so be it. But now, I'm a grown man & I'll be damned if anybody disrespects me. I'm not having it, it's not happening!"
The rift between UFC president Dana White and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson over Jackson's participation in the upcoming movie remake of "The A-Team" may not be over after all.
After White told reporters last weekend that he and the former light heavyweight champion had mended fences, Jackson wrote a post on his official blog stating that he is retiring.
Here is the blog entry, dated Sept. 22 at 4:43 p.m. P.S.T., in its entirety:
"The UFC has done a lot for me but I think I have done more for them. The UFC bought WFA to get my contract & they saved my life, so I felt loyal to them. They pushed me into a fight with Chuck Liddell even when I clearly stated I wasn't ready to fight for the belt because the American fans didn't know me but I took the fight and didn't complain & after I won the American fans booed me for the first time which changed the way I saw them & it hurt me deeply.
"Then before I can even get out of the cage they announced that I was fighting Dan Henderson without even asking me. After I beat Dan Henderson, I made history in becoming the first undisputed champion in MMA but was never even given the pride belt in the cage & I was never promoted as the undisputed champ. Later Anderson Silva was.
"Then they had me coach TUF season 7 and fight Forrest and the fight was very controversial & normally when a fight is that close & controversial there is normally an instant replay. I can name a couple of instances. Instead they offered me the Vanderlei Silva fight which I gladly accepted even though I know it was a very risky fight for me to take because of all the drama that was happening to me at the time. I fought that fight with a jaw injury and then a couple weeks later Dana called me and asked me to fight Rashad. For the first time I said no, I didn't want to fight because it was such short notice & I wouldn't have had a long break between camp. Dana talked me into fighting Rashad anyway but Rashad refused the fight and so I had to fight Jardine as a favor to the UFC instead of getting my belt back (which wasn't even worth it to me financially).
"Then I reinjured my jaw in the fight with Vanderlei & Jardine. Frank Mir gets hurt so they wanted to switch my fight from UFC 100 to the fight Frank couldn't make it to but I couldn't fight cause I needed jaw surgury. So they give Machida the fight against Rashad & they told me they want me to coach TUF season 10 against Rashad. That's why I wanted Rashad to win so bad but when Rashad got knocked out I told them I wanted to fight Machida for the belt but Dana told me if I coach TUF against Rashad that I could fight Machida afterwards cause this was a different type of ultimate fighter show they were doing. After I signed the contract Dana then changes his mind & says I have to fight Rashad & even told me what to say in the press & so my fans think I was scared to fight Machida. After all that I still never complained & I did it all.
"Then this movie role came about that I have been trying to get for over a year & as soon as I found out I was close to getting it, I called Dana right away & asked to push the Memphis fight back just a month or so. I told him what this movie role meant to me. I told him that I used to bond with my father watching the tv show as a kid when my parents where still married & it represents the memories I had with my father when we lived together. My dad became an alcohalic & addicted to drugs & we grew apart. But after my dad got his life back together, I was so proud of my dad & I told him I would always take care of him in the future & make him proud of me. My dad & I are still very big fans of the show & I am basically doing this for the childhood memories I had spending time in front of the tv with my dad. Dana went on the internet & mocked me because of that & I still did nothing. Dana & I finally talked & we made up & then after that he went back on the internet & said some bullshit & he was talking bad about the movie when information is not even supposed to be released & talking about payments which is not even true could really hurt my future acting career, which could very well last longer than my fighting career. I'm not like Randy Couture. My body has been getting so many different injuries that I wont be able to fight until my forties & neither do I want to fight that long. So I feel like my second career could be in jeopardy.. so I'm done fighting. I've been getting negative reviews from the dumb ass fans that don't pay my bills or put my kids though college. So I'm hanging it up. I'm gonna miss all my loyal fans but hopefully they'll follow me to my new career & I will gain more loyal fans along the way. & all you hater fans out there can kiss my big black hairy ass! & anybody that don't like what I just said can come try to kick my ass!
"I still feel the UFC is a great organization and I felt like I was very loyal to them but they didn't respect my loyalty but I wish the UFC the best. I did a lot of things for them. I wish no bad blood between us but I have kids & a family back in Memphis to provide for & thats all that matters to me!"
Spike TV has released an extended preview of "The Ultimate Fighter" Season 10, which debuts Sept. 16 at 10 p.m. following Ultimate Fight Night 19 in Oklahoma City.
If he had any, Dana White would probably be pulling his hair out.
A little over a week after the UFC president railed at former light heavyweight champ Quinton Jackson's desire to play B.A. Baracus in an upcoming remake of "The A Team," a report from The Sun states that Jackson has indeed landed the role, nixing an MTV report that called the UK tabloid "lying liars" and said Jackson was not cast as the latter day Mr. T.
Adding gasoline to the fire is the report's claim that Jackson has passed on a fight with Rashad Evans at 107 in his hometown of Memphis because filming won't give him time for a proper training camp. The rival coaches of TUF 10 were supposed to squash their bad blood at the Dec. 12 event.
Jervis Cole, Evans' manager, had no comment about the rumored change.
The change scratches half the Southern card's star power, with a lightweight match-up between BJ Penn and Diego Sanchez now the front runner to headline. A heavyweight match-up between Frank Mir and Cheik Kongo has also been rumored for the main card.
To put it mildly, UFC president Dana White is not a fan of his fighters doing movies. That is, if the movies get in the way of the UFC calendar.
"I hate it with a (expletive) passion," he said. "You're a fighter. You're not a movie star. It's so (expletive) funny because fighters want to be movie stars and movie stars want to act like they're fighters. It's like, get a grip. You're a (expletive) fighter and you're a movie star."
Quinton "Rampage" Jackson made headlines Wednesday when a report in UK tabloid The Sun said the former light heavyweight champion was set to take on the role of "B.A. Baracus" in an upcoming movie remake of television series "The A-Team."
A subsequent report from MTV.com Thursday morning disputed the report, citing Jackson's managers, who said Jackson had not booked the role.
White had not heard the latest reports when he spoke to reporters at the UFC 102 pre-fight press conference in Portland, Ore., Thursday afternoon, but he didn't like the idea of Jackson's silver screen dreams, mildly put.
"Rampage wants to be a movie star," continued White. "I hope it’s not true (about Jackson getting the role). He's up for it, and he talked to me, he wants to do this thing, and he's like, 'listen, man, this is really important to me...there's some sentimental value here for me, me and my Dad grew up watching The A-Team together and we loved it.'
"Well, guess what, brother? I said, 'guess what Rashad Evans is thinking about right now. He's thinking about beating your (expletive) ass. He's not sitting around thinking about him and his mom used to watch the (expletive) 'Love Boat' together, and he wants to get the role of 'Isaac the Bartender'...you know what I mean? Get a (expletive) grip, dude. You're going to make a lot of money. You ain't gonna make a lot of money playing B.A. Baracus on the A-Team. Jesus Christ. (Expletive) drives me (expletive) nuts."
White said sometime actor and five-time UFC champ Randy Couture was an exception.
"Randy did it right," said White. "Randy shot a movie and it didn’t interfere with his training or anything."
Heath Herring recently told MMA Insider that he was putting off fighting until 2010 to pursue several film projects. Strikeforce middleweight champ Cung Le is currently MIA with several studio projects in the can and more in the pipeline. Chuck Liddell is about to dance with the stars.
According to White, a fighter who fulfills his contract obligations is free to act. That, or a retired fighter. But act on the eve of a fight? Not cool.
"(Rashad) hates (Rampage)," White said. "He hates Rampage more than he hates anyone on the planet and he’s thinking about killing him."
White sat back in his chair with a sigh.
"You guys wouldn't want to be me if you're if your life depended on it."
Despite coaching a second season of "The Ultimate Fighter," Quinton "Rampage" Jackson admitted he doesn't watch the show.
"I can never catch it cause it comes on at ten o'clock at night," he told reporters at a media day for the tenth season of TUF. "Either I'm in bed, because I've gotta get up early the next morning, or I'm out doing other stuff. I never even got a chance to watch my season."
Of course, his schedule wasn't the only reason he didn't tune in.
"I have a short attention span... I don't think I could just sit there and watch a bunch of dudes on TV," he continued. "There's gotta be some girls and stuff. I love 'The Ultimate Fighter' and sports, but I just couldn't do it."
The show is now in its third week of filming, and UFC president Dana White said the first day of filming has set the bar high for drama.
If that's true, or if TUF gives more time to ring card girls Edith and Arianny, Jackson may rethink his policy.
By now, it's no secret that Quinton "Rampage" Jackson isn't fond of Rashad Evans. The two went nose to nose after UFC 96 and nearly fought at a recent photo shoot. Jackson is chomping at the bit for a fight with the former champion.
New champion Lyoto Machida was a frequent refrain at a media day for the tenth season of "TUF." Jackson said Evans had it all wrong when he faced "The Dragon."
"I think he was afraid," said Jackson. "That's what made him mess up. He didn't do nothing -- that's what his mistake was. He let Machida do everything.
"Plus, he's talking while Machida was trying to knock him out. He's not defending... he's talking. How you gonna talk while somebody's trying to knock your head off? What do you do? Ask him to stop? What are you doing?"
Jackson's general take on Evans was that he talked too much.
Not exactly an unbiased source for opinion, but Jackson believed Evans lost against Tito Ortiz and Michael Bisping as well.
Would he do things differently against Machida?
For one, he'd take the fight to the champion, he said.
"Yeah," said Jackson. "I'm an aggressive fighter."
"Yeah, I think if Quinton beats Jardine, he'll get the next shot at the title," said UFC president Dana White following Wednesday's UFC 94 pre-fight press conference in Las Vegas.
And that is regardless of the outcome of a key battle at UFC 94. Lyoto Machida, the No. 4 ranked light heavyweight fighter in the world, and No. 10 ranked Thiago Silva are slated for a showdown in the top undercard fight at UFC 94. Both have been on a tear through the 205-pound division and both are undefeated.
But while the winner of Machida vs. Silva is likely to narrow the field of contenders to the title currently held by "Sugar" Rashad Evans, it appears that Quinton "Rampage" Jackson -- with a win over Keith Jardine at UFC 96 on March 7 -- will jump to the head of the line.
White has stated in the past that Jackson vs. Evans might have already been on tap, but Evans was not fully recovered yet from his title victory over Forrest Griffin at UFC 92, so they put Jackson and Jardine together for the Columbus fight card.
In the final edition of Dana White's UFC 92 video blog, he goes backstage for the fights that took place on Saturday night. The event featured two title changes...Rashad Evans winning the light heavyweight title and Frank Mir taking home the heavyweight crown.
Quinton "Rampage" Jackson takes on "The Axe Murderer," Wanderlei Silva, at UFC 92 Saturday night in Las Vegas. It will be their third fight but their first under Unified Rules. Their two previous bouts took place under Pride rules with ten-minute first rounds, yellow cards, stomps, soccer kicks, knees to the head on the ground, no elbows, and took place in a square ring.
This time around, they will compete for three, five-minute rounds, inside the world famous Octagon with no knees to the head on the ground, no stomps, no soccer kicks, but they are allowed to use elbows.
Seems like a big difference, but Jackson doesn't think so. "A fight is a fight," says the former UFC light heavyweight titleholder.
"Wanderlei is a warrior... Wanderlei fought in the UFC before he fought in Pride," he pointed out. "I don't think it makes a difference. A fight is a fight. I'll fight Wanderlei in a phone booth if I had to.
"It don't matter what the rules are or what the advantages is. A fight is a fight," Jackson added. "I do like the Pride rules, and I do like some of the UFC rules. I wish that, if there was a perfect world for me, I wish we could mix them up and have both rules. That would be cool."
At the end of the day, Rampage commented, "I'm just thinking about staying within the rules and having a good fight."
Tickets for UFC 92 "The Ultimate 2008" go on sale to the general public beginning Saturday, Oct. 25 at 10 a.m. PT. There are presale options to purchase tickets before they go on sale to the general public.
Starting Wednesday, Oct. 22 at 10 a.m. PT, tickets for UFC 92 go on sale to UFC Fight Club members. And on Friday, Oct. 24 at 10 a.m. PT, tickets go on sale to newsletter subscribers.
UFC 92 is scheduled to take place on Saturday, Dec. 27 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. It features three of the Ultimate Fighting Championship's highest profile fights of the year. Forrest Griffin puts his newly won light heavyweight championship on the line against Rashad Evans, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira defends his heavyweight interim belt against fellow Ultimate Fighter 8 coach Frank Mir, and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson returns to the Octagon to try and avenge two brutal losses to Wanderlei Silva.
Typically, most people automatically say whoever holds the title in the UFC is the No. 1 guy in that division, at least in the UFC, right?
Well, Keith Jardine isn't so sure... and that's not because he's bragging and saying that he is the No. 1 guy in the UFC's 205-pound division.
Obviously referring to a crazy round-robin of wins and losses, the UFC's light heavyweight division does make for some strange MMA math. Rampage beat Liddell who beat Wanderlei who beat Jardine who beat Forrest who beat Rampage and is the champ. Say what?!
"This was a huge fight," said Jardine after his win over Brandon Vera at UFC 89 before adding, "The division is weird. Forrest (Griffin) is the champ right now, but who knows who the best guy is? It could be the number one guy. It could be the number ten guy. There's a lot of undefeated guys. There's a lot of guys coming up. I think it's going take a year or so to sort this thing out."
The wheels of justice slowed a bit Thursday as Quinton Jackson's pre-trial hearing was postponed until Oct. 24.
As Jackson prepared to exit the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana, Calif., with his lawyer, a female reporter from TMZ.com approached him asking for comment.
"Why you guys gotta do me like that?" Jackson told the reporter, glaring. "You guys always try to make me look stupid. That's the reason I don't talk to y'all. You try to make everybody look stupid. We're just people like everyone else."
An awkward pause ensued.
"I wrote that you were getting better," she responded, attempting her best smile. "Sometimes they just, you know, have to..."
Jackson continued glaring.
"He's the nicest client I've ever had," Jackson's attorney, Carol Lavacot, interrupted. "With my pro-bono mindset, I'd probably take the case for free. I've had thousands of clients, and he's the nicest one I've ever had."
Jackson finally smiled. "You're just being nice cause' I'm paying you a lot of money," he said with a laugh. The lawyer and reporter joined in nervously.
Whew, that was close.
When Jackson became a UFC star, his relationship with TMZ started cordial, but relations eventually soured. After the site posted some questionable off-the-cuff remarks of his outside a club, Jackson changed his tune. Things deteriorated further with TMZ's coverage of the car chase that landed him in the Orange County courthouse. Jackson was splashed all over the page, pictures of him arrested by Orange County police officers front and center.
Jackson just got back from the United Kingdom, where he helped Paul Kelly and Michael Bisping prepare for their fights at UFC 89 and 90, respectively. The former champ recently signed a management contract with Bisping's home gym, the Wolfslair.
Most celebrities chased by TMZ have more of a hate-hate relationship with the muckraking gossip site, so Jackson's reaction was not new. When your business is the superficial, you're bound to get on a person's bad side.
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