Rampage: Bellator can’t f@$% with the UFC

Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson had a long, strange trip to the Octagon Saturday night.

In 2013 he said the UFC killed his love for mixed martial arts and left for Bellator MMA. Then late in 2014 he said he preferred the ‘devil you know’ and wanted back into the UFC, saying Bellator had not honored their contract. The UFC re signed him, and booked a fight with Fabio Maldonado, who was guaranteed to not wrestlef@$% Rampage into frustration.

Early this month Bellator was granted an injunction to keep Rampage off the card, and hockey enforcer Steve Bosse was brought out of retirement to fight Maldonado. Then just days before the fight, the NJ court lifted the injunction, and the fight was on.

Jackson won a decision, and afterward related how he felt.

I’m not worried about what they [Bellator] do, said Jackson as transcribed by Tristen Critchfield for Sherdog. I want to give Dana and Lorenzo big thanks. They had my back; they helped me out, he said. I’m gonna say it right now. I was over there. Bellator can’t f— with the UFC. So I ain’t scared.

To be honest I was just happy not to be fighting somebody that was desperate to take me down. When you’re fighting like a real man, like a real MMA fighter – somebody who is going to fight and stand and bang with you, you don’t have to worry about people desperately trying to take you down. You can let the kicks go, let the knees go. You can do things. I threw a flying knee but he was doing a great job. I wanted to go out there and show out.

I want to come back and beat everybody that beat me. I want to fight ‘Shogun’, Glover, Rashad and make my way back up to Jon Jones. I’m on a mission. That’s the honest truth.

This was the most stressful time in my whole career. I’ve been fighting for 15 years and I’ve never had to deal with what I had to deal with just to get here. I hope I never have to deal with that again.

UFC president Dana White was asked post fight if Jackson still had legal troubles.

“I think he does,” said White as transcribed by Karim Zidan for BE. “I think he’s definitely got some legal troubles ahead of him, so we’ll see how this thing plays out.”

So although the stay of injunction allowed Rampage to fight at UFC 186, the court case is apparently not over, and Jackson’s wishes for the future unfortunately remain in question.

The fight itself did not thrill the crowd, something White suggested was due to Rampage not having fought in the UFC since January 26, 2013.

“Rampage has been gone for a long time,” said White. “This is the big leagues. I don’t know if you remember but when Rampage first came to the UFC and fought Marvin Eastman – very similar performance in that fight. Now that Rampage is back here, he knows what he’s got to do to stay here.”

For his part, Jackson offered no excuses.

“The last time I fought was last May [for Bellator], close to my hometown, I have no excuses,” he said as transcribed by Chuck Mindenhall for MMAFighting.com. “I wasn’t rusty or nothing. This is the hardest I’ve ever trained in my whole 15-year career. I started back training with Bobby Rimmer. He’s like one of the best boxing coaches I’ve ever seen and that I’ve trained with. And he pushed me to the limits. He pushed me to points that I didn’t even think that I could perform. I got no excuses.”

“I just think that Fabio is not human. I hit that guy with everything, and he was asking for some more. I was like, damn. I even tried to kick him in the head. I didn’t even think he’d see that coming. I didn’t know what to do. I was thinking about blowing my bad breath on him…but I didn’t think that would work either. So I just kept trying.”