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Watching the press conference after UFC 103 on Saturday night, it was clear Dana White was upset with Rampage Jackson over the delays with the A-Team movie shoot. He seemed, though, to be near that acceptance stage that there wasn't anything he could do about it. What I wondered then and wonder now is why Dana didn't have a scheduled and signed contract for the fight to take place on a certain date. I suppose that's usually not necessary as fighters want to fight, and how could he have anticipated that Rampage would double-book himself in a way that would conflict with a huge payday for a UFC PPV main event?
However, I do have to side with Dana on this. Rampage should have known that he was essentially breaking his word, explicit or implied, regarding the Rashad Evans fight once this season of The Ultimate Fighter ended. It's too bad that Dana got bitten by doing a handshake agreement and not a signed contract. All of the TV time that's going to promote Evans and Rampage is a waste of resources. That TV time could have been given to other coaches.
Rampage may have listed a lot of other grievances he has with UFC and even its fans (which is where he sounded especially immature), but those have nothing to do with the fact that he double-booked himself because he felt a better opportunity, in his mind, came up. As upset as Dana would have been no matter what if Rampage was going to delay the fight (think about how much intrigue was lost for the Matt Hughes-Matt Serra rematch by the time it took place), at least Rampage could have made a case that the movie was a great opportunity to set him up with a long-term future after fighting and then find a way to make it up to Dana with other concessions. Instead, a worst-case scenario has resulted and now tainted The Ultimate Fighter season that just started last week.
[Rampage Jackson art credit Cory Gould (c) MMATorch]
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