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By Bjorn “NorwegianNightmare” Hansen, MMATorch contributor
Trust me when I say that Rampage WILL fight Rashad. When? Who knows? But I’m sure we’ll pick up on our boyish enthusiasm right where we left off after watching TUF 10. Sure, Rampage is done... for now.
He still needs to finish filming the movie that acted as the catalyst to this untimely debacle. At some point during that learning process, he’ll come to realize again what he already knows deep inside. Quinton Ramone Jackson is a fighter; a UFC fighter.
Let’s just face it. Rampage is a drama queen. After getting schooled by Forrest, (controversial or not, Forrest went the distance, when prior to, Rampage and many others seemed absolutely convinced otherwise) a mortified Rampage was found driving against traffic in an elevated, monster-truck-sized F-350 with one of the chrome wheels sparking from a flat tire.
Does that sound like a man who reacts well when things don’t go his way? So please don’t believe Rampage when he melodramatically states he’s “done” being a fighter.
This is the same guy that told David Samuels of The Atlantic publication - days after and having time to mentally recuperate - that “God made me to be a fighter... This is what I was made to do.”
Not only is Rampage responding in an overly sentimental fashion, but there is fallacy to his line of logic as well. He confesses he doesn’t drink out of the same fountain of youth Randy Couture does and won’t be fighting into his 40s.
His bruising style of fighting matched with the hard-hitting opponents sitting atop the light-heavy weight division means the next few years of his fighting career will in all likelihood be his last opportunity to reign as a dominant fighter.
Fighting at a title-contention level in the UFC demands an athlete in his fighting prime, and for Rampage, at age 31, those days are diminishing. Acting, as we all know, has no such requisite.
So while Rampage may indeed be sincere about his acting endeavors now, once his bruised ego heals within the next year or so, he’ll once again proclaim what we’ve already heard once before: I WANT MY BELT BAAACK!
Want to throw your two cents in? Hit me up at the Torch Boards.
[Rampage Jackson art credit Cory Could (c) MMATorch]
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