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With the grudge match against Rashad Evans behind him and the bitter taste of defeat in his mouth, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson now looks ahead to the next stage of his career. The question now becomes, which career does he move on with?
Rampage has never been the most motivated fighter. He has never had a true passion for fighting in and of itself, and he's been the first to admit that. He's always fought for the money, that has always been his motivating factor; and with his part in the A-Team movie bringing him headfirst into Hollywood it left many to speculate that he had one foot out the door.
With the press tour for the A-Team movie beginning this week, Rampage is now realizing the difficulties with attempting to juggle the two careers, and he's got to figure out which one he'll pursue.
"I’m a fighter, but I tried to go into a whole new adventure and didn’t even know anything about tours and stuff in a movie. I had no idea I had to do this,” Rampage said at the post fight press conference. “I was just focusing on this fight and I wasn’t even worrying about [other movie offers]. I got to make a decision because it looks like it would be hard to do both if you’re gonna take time off and fight guys accountable here in the UFC. I’ve just got to think about which one I want to do."
In addition, Jackson recounted what was essentially not an entirely great experience while filming the A-Team in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.
"People can be really inconsiderate of people's feelings," he said. "I wasted three weekends in a row waiting in my trailer when they didn't use me at all. To be honest, my experience in this movie industry hasn't always been good."
"If you know one thing about me, I say time is the most valuable thing in this universe. I hate wasting time. And these mother******* wasted a lot of my...time!"
Not only that, but Rampage lived up to the unfortunately homophobic stereotype of the "tough man fighter," saying "Acting is kind of gay. It makes you soft. You got all these people combing your hair and putting a coat over your shoulders when you're cold. I don't want a coat over my shoulders! I'm a tough-ass mother******."
With his feelings on the movie business, the demoralizing nature of his loss to Evans and the fact that his year long layoff clearly affected his performance in the cage, I'm of the belief that he'll concentrate on his fight career.
If that's the case, in the heavily competitive light heavyweight division, Rampage would need to get serious about his fighting career again and keep himself in fighting shape. If this fight helped him shake the ring rust off, he should get back into action by September to keep himself fresh and hopefully return to the types of performances that got him to the top of the heap in the division.
The UFC has three fighters that should hopefully be able to fight by September that would all make for great match ups and would all make perfect sense for Rampage's next UFC fight. Those three fighters are Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Lyoto Machida and Forrest Griffin.
Nogueira picked up a victory on last night's card over Jason Brilz, but it was a fight in which Brilz came out impressing more people, giving Nogueira fits and winning the fight on one judges' scorecard and in the minds of most in crowd at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
Nogueira had been set to face off with Griffin before the former Light Heavyweight Champion needed to pull out to get shoulder surgery, and with a win in which he had the fight taken to him, no one would complain about a match up with Jackson.
With Machida coming off of his first career loss and the loss of his belt, a fight with Rampage would work from a timing standpoint as well. This is the fight that Rampage repeatedly said he wanted instead of Rashad when it would have been for the belt, but with them both losing the fight would still have a lot of significance in the division. Rampage has a notoriously good chin and could present a tough stylistic match up with Machida, provided he can gain a step over the slow and plodding speed he had during the Evans fight on Saturday.
With Machida getting knocked out by Shogun, Rampage is another fighter who would could very well be able to knock him out. Of course, Machida is a counter striker, and having Rampage come after him could allow him to perform similar to his fights with Evans and Thiago Silva, but it would certainly make for a very good fight and one that affords itself to more excitement than Saturday's main event.
Finally, to assure a motivated Rampage, a fight with Forrest Griffin may be the best matchup for him with Griffin coming off of shoulder surgery. Rampage still feels he won the fight with Griffin at UFC 86, and he's said in the past he just wants to beat all the guys that have beaten him. If that was his next fight, he may get himself back into better shape and could be more intent on making a positive return.
Only Quinton Jackson knows what's next for him, but fight fans are hoping he'll choose the fight game over Hollywood and try to make a return to the top of the division. It's going to take a dedication to training and a realization that the UFC is where he'll be able to make his money, but if he keeps himself in fight shape, doesn't allow himself to get back to 250 lb. in between fights and finds the motivation to become a better fighter than he's shown in his last few fights, he's not past the point of being a force in the division.
RELATED STORY: UFC 114 RESULTS: Rashad Evans defeats Rampage Jackson by unanimous decision after third round scare: [CLICK TO READ FULL ARTICLE]
[Quinton Jackson art by Cory Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
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