Rampage – Year Two
Quinton Jackson used to lead a double life. Not the kind where the Octagon door closes, the jokester leaves and ‘Rampage’ enters. That duality still exists for the Memphis native. But back when he was making his name in the mixed martial arts world while fighting in Japan for the PRIDE organization, Jackson undoubtedly experienced what he considered to be the best of both worlds.
Fighting and spending time in the Land of the Rising Sun, Jackson was a superstar, mobbed by fans and recognized everywhere he went. But as soon as his fights were over, he collected his paycheck, and he came back home to the United States, where he was just like everyone else…and that was just fine with him.
“Actually, it was pretty refreshing,” said Jackson, who fought 17 times in PRIDE from 2001 to 2006. “I could be somebody over in Japan and even if I wore the right things, I could get away with not a lot of people knowing who I was. But when I came home, I could be a Regular Joe and I loved it.”
Being a ‘Regular Joe’ even extended to his relationship with his family, who knew he was making a living in the fight game, but didn’t know why he had to travel to Japan to do it.
“My family wasn’t surprised that I was gonna be a fighter because growing up, I was just natural at fighting,” he recalled. “I just told them I was fighting over in Japan and they couldn’t understand why I chose Japan. I told them I didn’t choose Japan; Japan chose me. But they knew I was happy and I was loving it, and I was doing pretty well – I was making a living.”
For those of us who covered Jackson when he was in PRIDE, we prayed for the day when he would fight full-time in the States, not just so this charismatic fighter could get his just due in his own country, but so that the rest of the media and fans could see who we were making all this commotion about.
In 2006, the Rampage experiment began, albeit with a whimper instead of a bang as Jackson outpointed Matt Lindland in a WFA bout in July of that year. But soon after, the WFA imploded, and with its implosion came the UFC’s purchase of his contract. So in 2007, the MMA world got a full dose of Quinton Jackson in the sport’s premier organization, and after his three UFC victories last year over Marvin Eastman, Chuck Liddell, and Dan Henderson, things will never be the same, for the sport – and more importantly, for Jackson, who is not only the light heavyweight champion of the world and ruler over the toughest division in the game, but a fighter whose popularity has seen him strike deals to be involved with everything from video games to a sneaker line.
“I had no idea that this was gonna take off,” admits Jackson. “I’ve got my own rims, my own energy drink – you know you’re somebody if you’ve got your own energy drink. (Laughs) God has been good.”
Oddly enough though, for Jackson, the greatest fringe benefit of fighting and winning in the UFC hasn’t been anything of a monetary or fame-related nature.
“This is the thing about the UFC that a lot of people don’t know – it’s not only made me more successful, but it’s also bringing my family together,” he said. “My Mom is more active in what’s going on with me, my Dad has been to every one of my UFC fights, even in London. He never came to my PRIDE fights. My cousins, aunts, and uncles saw me on The Ultimate Fighter show, people I don’t even get to talk to that often, they all want to come to my fights. The UFC is not only doing great things for me financially, but for my family as well, and I can never repay those guys. They treat me so good. I fought for PRIDE for years and I still felt like the red-headed stepchild there. But the UFC, I beat their posterboy, Chuck, and I’m sure they didn’t like that but they still accepted me and treated me better than PRIDE ever did.”
Part of being treated better for a pro fighter includes being one of the ‘faces’ of the organization, and these days, if you think of the UFC, one of the first names that come to mind is Jackson’s. But to get to that point, it takes a lot of interviews, a lot of autograph sessions and photo shoots, and a lot of ‘being seen’. Hey, Jackson has even made a few appearances on the entertainment gossip site TMZ.com. If that’s not big, what is? Sometimes that’s not conducive to a fighter’s lifestyle though, and Jackson admits that in the immediate aftermath of his title unification win over Henderson last September, things got a bit hectic.
“After my fight with Dan Henderson I kinda just went overboard and didn’t do any training,” he said. “I got up to almost 250 (pounds) and it was embarrassing and it was bad for my sponsors because they wanted to take pictures and stuff. (Laughs) I made history – I was the first undisputed light heavyweight champion in my sport and a lot of people were intrigued by that and it was crazy. I did a whole lot of PR, and doing this and doing that kinda cost me and I gained a lot of weight, so I learned a big lesson from that. Now I’m gonna just try to balance it out, and even if I don’t have a fight coming up I’m gonna train a couple of days a week and schedule things around my training because my training comes first, and hopefully people understand that.”
That’s not to say Jackson hasn’t been burning the midnight oil in Big Bear, California during the training camp for his UFC 86 bout against his coaching counterpart on The Ultimate Fighter, Forrest Griffin. With trainer Juanito Ibarra in charge, he has little choice in the matter. As of the time of this interview last week, Jackson was already on schedule weight-wise for Saturday’s bout, and he was in good spirits. And when it comes to being off for ten months (like Griffin has), the 30-year old thinks it’s a plus, not a minus.
“I think the time off was well-needed,” he said. “I tore some ligaments in my hand (in the Henderson fight), I had three hard training camps in a row, plus the fight with Dan Henderson was really tough. I think my body needed that break and it showed in my training camp now. I came in feeling really good, and my
body was well-rested – I just wish I hadn’t got so heavy. I don’t think about ring-rust, but if there is such a thing, Forrest will be the best guy to come back against because he’s got good skills, but he’s not a guy that’s gonna knock you out when you lag. I don’t think Forrest could knock out anybody. The last time I had a long layoff, I came back against Matt Lindland and he’s the worst guy to come back against after a nine month layoff and I did pretty well against him.”
But despite those comments, don’t assume that Jackson is taking Griffin lightly. He knows that, at the very least, he’s in for a fight. Unfortunately for Griffin, Jackson loves that type of night at the office, where he won’t have to look too far for his foe.
“He (Griffin) is a tough guy with a lot of heart who can take a lot of punishment,” said Jackson, 28-6 as a pro. “He’ll fight anybody, he don’t care who it is, he just loves to fight. And he loves training and is a hard worker. I know he’s gonna be game, but I also see a guy that’s gonna come in a little bit busted up and overtrained. He’s gonna try to get a gameplan that will tire me out, but I see him tiring himself out trying to tire me out. People assume for some strange reason that I don’t have cardio so they try to tire me out. So I see a guy who’s pretty smart, but too smart for his own good.”
And Jackson bristles at talk of Griffin training with a man who owns two wins over him, former PRIDE champ Wanderlei Silva.
“I don’t care who Forrest is sparring with, whether it’s Wanderlei or anyone,” he said. “That person won’t be able to fight for him.”
Griffin also won’t be fighting the same man Silva beat in 2003 and 2004. If anything, Jackson has gotten better and is no longer the one-dimensional brawler. Need proof? Look at the win over Henderson, a close five rounder, but one that saw Jackson basically beat the former Olympic wrestler at his own game on the mat.
“I always try to learn new stuff,” said Jackson. “I’m really a brawler, and a lot of times brawlers don’t know much – they just brawl – but I want to transform into a technical brawler. I want to get better on the ground and get my wrestling better. But things have suffered – I don’t slam people as much because I’m concentrating on other stuff. So it’s good and bad, because I like slamming people.”
Don’t fret though, because while Quinton Jackson may have become a star here in the States in the last 12 months, he still has some old ‘Rampage’ tricks left to show his new fans.
“I’m focused, I want to stay champion for a long time and I want to give the fans a good show and a finish,” he said. “I want the judges to take a break, and ‘Rampage’ will be howlin’ at the end of the night – I guarantee it.”
