Blood On The Mat 09.24.09: Rampage Takes His Chain And Goes Home

Posted by  on 09.24.2009

The MMA world got the news straight from the man himself: “Rampage” Jackson is walking away from the sport and the UFC. Why would he do this? What happens next? What about Rashad? And does this newest ordeal stem from a much bigger problem the UFC faced throughout 2009? 411’s Adam Tool gives his take on these questions and more in this week’s Blood On The Mat!

Welcome to another edition of Blood On The Mat. I'm Adam Tool and what the hell is going on here? I was all set to run up and down the UFC 103 card giving my invaluable opinions on what went right and wrong, then the bombshell dropped on Tuesday night.

Before we get to this week's column, I want to point out one thing. Any factual errors committed this week are not my fault, but rather the result of this vicious cold that has held me hostage for the last six days. Blame the germs, not me.



On Tuesday, former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion and current head coach of "The Ultimate Fighter," Quinton "Rampage" Jackson updated the blog on his official page with a full set of grievances against the UFC. Then, he announces he is done with fighting, presumably to attempt a full-time career as an actor.


The photographer was in a tough spot. Did he dare pull Rampage‘s finger?

We'll have to look at the original post from Jackson himself to get all the details. His stuff is in italics, my thoughts are afterwards. All spelling, grammar, & capitalization has been left as is.

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.

First off, I don't know how he can complain about getting a title shot after one win in the UFC. He'd already beaten Chuck once, the story was built in before the fight was signed. Liddell had lain waste to the division's top challengers and a contender was needed as soon as possible.

For the record I'll state that I was not one of the many people booing "Rampage" when he whupped Chuck's ass. I was backing him to win as soon as I heard about the fight. Unfortunately I wasn't in the stands for UFC 71, so he couldn't hear me cheer. Is he really that surprised about the boos? After all, he did beat one of the company's most popular fighters.


Rampage tried to bag another white girl, but he had already reached his limit for that day

If you can't take criticism in the public eye, why in the world would you want to become a star in Hollywood? Have you seen how those people get treated?

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.

Why wasn't he given the belt? I wondered this right after the fight, as the UFC had made a pretty big deal out of the title unification bout. I also remember "Rampage" making comments before the fight about how many hours he had put into trying to win the PRIDE title. Give the man his belt, dammit.


Dude, for the last time. I do not know where the Cinnabon is.

Once you win the championship, you defend that belt against whomever the UFC decides to put in front of you. It's not something you get to pick and choose. That's kind of the whole point of the championship process. Remember KJ Noons? Exactly.

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).

By instant replay, I'll assume he means instant rematch. The Jackson/Griffin fight was close, but I agreed with the decision. He might have felt otherwise but that's why you don't let it go to the judges, etc, etc. The UFC could have conceivably organized an immediate rematch, and the fact that the first fight was so good certainly helped Jackson's case.

You know what doesn't help your case? Cross-county police chases and reckless endangerment of the public.


Remember kids: it‘s harder to get away from a high-speed pursuit when your face is plastered on the side of your vehicle

In his blog "Rampage" mentions his "drama" but stops there, well short of plenty of details. Nothing is said about exactly what it was he did; no further remorse for his actions is shown. He also doesn't give any credit to Dana and the UFC for sticking behind him during the whole ordeal. Dana bailed him out, said nothing but good things about him in the media, and made sure he would continue having a successful career.

The UFC can handle lower-tier fighters getting into trouble. The sport's not at a place yet where every single member of the company's roster is under constant scrutiny. Josh Neer gets an O.W.I., no biggie. Melvin Guillard gets popped for cocaine, we can move past that. Jackson, however, is easily the organization's biggest star to run into trouble with the law. Dana and the boys didn't flinch, they acknowledged it and worked to move on.


Mr. Jackson, I really think it would help our case if you stopped referring to the judge as "dawg"

Jackson needed at least one more fight to show everyone his head was still on straight, and few could argue with Rashad getting the title shot after UFC 88. That being said, Jackson should've got the first crack at Evans following the win over Silva. I don't know why Rashad refused the fight and Jardine had to be slotted in his place, but it was some utter bullshit. Wanderlei had already destroyed Jardine, "Rampage" had just destroyed Wanderlei. It's silly to put your most bankable contender in a meaningless fight against a guy that had already played spoiler on two notable occasions.

The Jardine fight is part of a larger problem the company has had over the course of the year, and that is the lack of compelling main events. The company is growing by leaps and bounds, expanding their events to new locations around the globe. Finding men worthy of headlining those shows has been one the company's biggest headaches over the course of 2009. Consider this: already this year the UFC has had three events which featured two of their five champions. That means less champions to go around, and as a result of a lack of title fights we've been fed less-than-compelling headliners like Sanchez vs. Stevenson and Franklin vs. Henderson. The problem isn't over either, as in November we'll see UFC 105 headlined by Randy Couture and Brandon friggin' Vera.

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.

Did Dana really tell Jackson that he would fight Machida after the show? If that's true, it's a pretty weak move on the part of the UFC President.


When your biggest accomplishment is hiding your private parts with a cell phone,
it may be time to take a good, hard look at your life.

In a world where the UFC wasn't constantly putting their biggest stars on ice to film their reality show, "Rampage" would've gotten the first crack at Lyoto Machida after UFC 98. Heck, the fight might've already taken place by now. In the real world the UFC chose to play up a rather useless rivalry between Jackson and Evans, and the best way to build that heat is to have the two playing coach against one another for three months. Now "Shogun" Rua has the first opportunity to dethrone Machida, and "Rampage" is signing up for a subscription to Variety.

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.

I do remember hearing rumblings of "Rampage" trying out for the A-Team movie a while back. In fact I first heard about it in this interview with Jimmy Kimmel, which was uploaded in June of 2008.



So obviously Jackson is telling the truth, it has been at least a year since he first started actively seeking the role in the A-Team movie. It's clear that this means a lot to him, and there's a more than decent chance that the movie could be a big hit. The man is clearly charismatic, although what I've seen of his acting so far has led me to wonder how successful he can really be.

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!

Now, the simple fact of the matter is this: It's his life, and he can do what he wants with it. If "Rampage" thinks his immediate future is bound to be spent on a movie set instead of in a cage, then so be it. I'll miss seeing him fight, but I'd hate to see him try and keep fighting when his heart obviously isn't in it.


I hope he‘s not thinking about fishing right now

So what happens now for those guys that want to continue fighting in the UFC? Well it's safe to say that the light heavyweight title picture has just been blown wide open. "Rampage" has been the #1 contender for some time, so there's no real clear choice to be made following next month's Machida/Rua title fight. The UFC has three big light heavyweight showdowns in November (Ortiz vs. Coleman, Couture vs. Vera, Nogueira vs. Cane) so the winners of those fights could find themselves in the mix sooner than later. There's also the obvious question of what to do with Rashad, now that he's without an opponent for the foreseeable future.


While we wait, can I tell you about some of the amazing new features in Windows 7?

So after all this, what does Dana have to say? He went on the Carmichael Dave show on Wednesday and gave his stance.

"Rampage is a grown man. He's acting like a baby right now, but he's a grown man. If he wants to be in the movie business, Rampage, good luck to you, man. I hope he makes it big, and I'm not being sarcastic. ... I hope the movie thing works out for him. If that's what he truly wants to do, and that's what he feels and that's what he thinks his career is, I wish him all the luck in the world."

Seems to me as though Daddy Dana is taking the same approach he took when Randy Couture tried to break his contract a few years ago. White also spoke positively about Couture, seemingly in an attempt to maintain a good relationship for Randy's eventual return.

In all honesty I imagine that White is remaining cautiously optimistic, like many of us are. Plenty of people around the web are speculating that this is just a temporary thing, that Rampage will be back to fight Rashad once his A-Team duties have been fulfilled.

White goes on to say that he got the news at the same time everyone else did, but apparently there's no hard feelings.

"I just found out, too. Rampage has been a friend of ours. We really like Rampage. I'm not going to get into the battle of who's done what for who and all that stuff. We've done a lot for him and yes, he's been there and fought. The guys who come in here, they're fighters. That's what they do. We give them fights and they fight. And they make money and we make money. That's the way it works."

Those of us expecting a string of f-bombs from the UFC President will have to go wanting this time. It's a smart approach from White, as his usual candor was the source of some of Jackson's frustrations.


Guys, it doesn‘t work if you both pick scissors

Personally, I love the fact that Dana White speaks his mind whenever he likes. It's rare in the age of political correctness to find such a powerful figure with no filter on what he'll say in public. Clearly though, this is a case of White's mouth getting him into trouble once again.

What's the solution? Should Dana start censoring himself and using more pre-approved comments like the ones found in your standard press release? Or should he proceed as he always has, and continue with the same brash style that made him such a widely recognized public figure in the first place?

I for one hope that this whole situation works out for the best. I would love to see "Rampage" back in the octagon sooner than later, but if he does a great job in the A-Team movie then I'll watch his acting career to see where it goes next.

But you know who I feel the worst for? Chuck Liddell.

The guy's downfall from the top of the 205 food chain started with "Rampage." Jardine, Rashad, and "Shogun" would come later, but Jackson was the one that seems to have benefited most from beating Chuck. Now Jackson is throwing away another chance at the top, while "The Iceman" is two-stepping and grinning like an idiot to the whims of Tom Bergeron.


It's sad, really

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