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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
"I don't know how much I ever loved the fight game, to be honest. Most fighters these days join fighting because they became a fan of it. When I started I wasn't a fan of it -- I've been a fighter my whole life. I just thought it was a blessing that God could give me something I could make money doing. When I was a kid I got tired of fighting. I didn't want to be a fighter anymore. But I was just good at it. It was just something that was in my blood. Some people are fighters... I like it a lot less than I used to. It's no secret, everybody knows about the falling out I had with the UFC, and it's just unfortunate that they're trying to blame me for doing this movie... They've said some things and done some things I don't agree with -- that's not the way I do business. I'm a loyal person so I take care of people who take care of me, but people who don't take care of me, I don't take care of them. So I'm done with the UFC. They can't ask me for anymore favors. Nothing. I just want to finish my contract and get out of there, do my own thing. Dana lied to me. He told me I didn't have to fight Rashad, I could fight Machida. I did the show and then after that he told me I had to fight Rashad."
-Quinton "Rampage" Jackson talks to Fighter's Only (transcribed at MMAFighting.com) about his lack of desire to fight and his fallout with the UFC.
Penick's Analysis: Rampage sure doesn't keep things straight from interview to interview. It was just last summer that he said himself that he chose to take the coaching gig and fight Rashad over a Title shot with Machida. He's said on many occasions he fights for the money, and the money has always been with this Rashad fight. Then of course he tries to pass the buck to how the UFC hasn't taken care of him and he's back to putting things all on Dana White, when in reality he did skip out on the fight with Rashad to film the A-Team movie, putting them in a spot after committing to the reality show and the fight. All of this after the UFC has had his back on many occasions, and lest he forget in one serious incidence when he was bailed out of a California jail by White himself after his turn speeding and evading cops through the streets of Orange County. If he wants to give up fighting for something he enjoys doing more, that's one thing, but him constantly placing the blame for his decisions on others does not do much to endear him to anyone or put people on his side. And he can't possibly believe that a fight with Rashad wasn't inherently implied or outright spelled out in black and white when taking on the coaching gig on TUF.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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