Rampage: At 35 I’m done, retiring in two years
“If Matt Hamill thinks I’ll take him lightly, he’s mistaken this time. My coach won’t let me take my opponents…
“If Matt Hamill thinks I’ll take him lightly, he’s mistaken this time. My coach won’t let me take my opponents lightly. I like to finish people. I want a devastating finish.”
“I’m a fighter in the true sense of the words Ultimate Fighter. I have the fighter’s spirit, and I’m not afraid to do anything. I’m not afraid to fight anybody.”
“I’m gonna try to do to Matt Hamill what I try to do to all my opponents: Whoop his ass. There’s not one doubt in my mind that I can whoop Matt Hamill.”
Despite Rampage’s stern talk, he does not care that the bout vs. Hamill has been elevated to main event status, and he is looking toward the end of his career.
“I don’t care either way. It doesn’t bother me. It doesn’t change the outcome of the fight or the way I train or anything,” he told the ESPN UFC Podcast.
“I’ve always said I’ll retire when I’m 35. I don’t want to fight past 35. There are young guys coming in and doing good. I’ve been fighting for a long time and it’s no secret that I don’t fight the same way I used to.
“I’ve got a lot of injuries, one or two things that bother me. But when I’m fighting, the injuries don’t bother me, it’s the training that gets old. Going through each camp I go through all these pains and think, ‘Man I don’t want to do this anymore’. But after the fight I say, ‘OK, I’ll give it one more’. So who knows?
“But at 35 I’m done.”
Rampage Jackson meets Matt Hamill as the 130 co-main event, May 28, 2011 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.