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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
While Quinton "Rampage" Jackson decided to film the A-Team movie instead of fulfilling his fight obligation with the UFC to fight Rashad Evans this month to cap off the tenth season of The Ultimate Fighter, the former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion is not quite finished fighting.
In a blog post on his main site (subscription required), Jackson stated "Now, I wanted to let my fans know that I'm going to come back to the UFC & finish my contract. Not because the haters are talking shit about me being scared of Rashad or Titties or anybody else. I'm coming back for my fans & to shut Rashad's mouth up & shut Dana's mouth up. Then after that I'm going back to doing movies & I might do a boxing match once a year just to stay in shape. Hate on dis!"
So it looks like the plan is to return in the spring to fight Evans, this coming after Rashad fights Thiago Silva on January 2nd at UFC 108, but after that it's anyone's guess. Whether Dana White can squash the current situation like he did with Tito Ortiz is something that will be battled out in 2010, but for now at least all of the build up on this season of TUF will not be for naught and we will get this coaches fight, just a number of months late.
Penick's Analysis: Jackson's clearly still angry with Dana White and the UFC for both his portrayal on this season of the reality show and the comments White has made in regard to him pulling out of the Rashad fight for the movie. This is going to be an interesting next few months when it comes to Rampage and what we'll see out of him when he does step back into the cage. The UFC now has to be hoping for a Rashad victory over Silva; but again, after the fight does take place who knows what Rampage's next step will be. It's hard to figure out when it's likely he doesn't even have a clue yet.
[Rampage Jackson art credit Cory Gould (c) MMATorch]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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