‘Rampage’ Jackson says he’s ‘done fighting’
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Former Ultimate Fighting Championship light-heavyweight champ Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson of Irvine says in a blog post on his website that ‘I’m done fighting,’ and carries on about the reasons why. ‘The UFC has done a lot for me but I think I have done more for them,’ the blogger identified as Jackson wrote, criticizing the Ultimate Fighting Championship for assigning him fights against Chuck Liddell, Dan Henderson, Wanderlei Silva, Rashad Evans and Keith Jardine that he either wasn’t ready for or not consulted about.
Now that he’s involved in a film version of ‘The A-Team’ -- taking the role of B.A. Baracus, which Mr. T played on TV -- Jackson says more tension has gone down:
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 [UFC President Dana White] 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 [alcoholic] & 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 ... & 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 ... 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. ... 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!
UFC owner Lorenzo Fertitta told The Times in a text message today that he’s reaching out to Jackson’s manager for an explanation. ‘This all came out of left field,’ Fertitta wrote.
-- Lance Pugmire