There are a few fighters I've learned never to trust. It's always the same. I'm 100%, this time I've trained right, head's in right place, no injuries, I'm ready to go! and after the fight it's always oh "oh I was unmotivated, injured, had a bad camp, was distracted"
Rampage is one of those fighters. BJ Penn is another. Tito Ortiz is another.
mmajunkie.com
Former UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton "Rampage" Jackson (30-8 MMA, 5-2 UFC) admits he was not at his best in his May loss to rival Rashad Evans.
But contrary to popular belief, Jackson insists his Hollywood experience portraying B.A. Baracus in a feature-film version of "The A-Team" had nothing to do with his performance.
Instead, Jackson says he was defeated well before he ever even stepped into the cage for the UFC 114 main event, and he can pinpoint the exact moment to blame. In fact, had it not been for a sense of responsibility to his fans, Jackson said he would have pulled out of the fight.
"I know exactly the reason I lost that fight, and I knew I lost that fight before I even stepped in the cage," Jackson told MMAjunkie.com (
www.mmajunkie.com). "The day I lost that fight was a couple of weeks before the fight even started. It had nothing to do with the movie tour or anything."
When pressed for explanation, Jackson said he would prefer not to divulge specifics, but the 32-year-old admits he may have been better served withdrawing from the contest.
"I'd like to keep that personal, but sometimes we fight when we know we shouldn't fight," Jackson said. "Sometimes we should back out of fights. Because the fight as so delayed and so well-promoted, I felt like I owed it to my fans to fight no matter what the outcome was, so I still fought.
"I always keep stuff to myself. That's why I like my training camp in the U.K. We try to keep stuff secretive. We don't leak anything. I just did my thing and hoped for the best outcome, and I just kept going and kept fighting so the fans were happy."
Of course, the fight with Evans was originally set to take place five months earlier at UFC 107, which took place in Jackson's hometown of Memphis, Tenn. The tentative plans were delayed when Jackson signed on for the movie, and a very public fallout with UFC president Dana White followed shortly after.
Nevertheless, Jackson is back in a main-event slot in next week's UFC 123 event in Detroit, and he says those issues are well-behind him.
"I had a little falling out with Dana because I decided to do a movie instead of taking a fight," Jackson said. "Those type of things aren't going on (now)."
Jackson faces fellow former champ Lyoto Machida (16-1 MMA, 8-1 UFC), the man who knocked out Evans to claim the title in 2009. Jackson has been critical of Machida's elusive karate-based style in the past and labeled him as "too boring to promote."
Now that the pair is matched up, Jackson said his feelings remain unchanged. Nevertheless, he's highly motivated for the fight even if he's less-than-thrilled about the opponent.
"I'm going to be prepared for a fight," Jackson said. "It's just how excited I am about fighting a person or not. I'd rather fight somebody who is going to put on a show like me and stand and bang. I feel like those people are the true warriors, the true fighters, like the way B.J. Penn fights and how Matt (Hughes) fights. I like watching guys like that fight. The other guys, I'm not a fan of them at all.
"I just feel like I have to fight with the true warrior spirit. In the octagon, you fight. It's not like boxing where guys try to outpoint each other and go for decisions. We're MMA fighters. We're the best athletes in the world. I just hate to see our sport changed into boxing where people aren't even fighting anymore. I can't even watch a boxing match anymore."
Jackson has relocated his camp from the U.K. back to the U.S. in order to spend more time with his family and enjoy his new house. Whether or not that will pay dividends in the cage will be determined on Nov. 20, but the man who says he knew his chances to beat Evans were slim says he'll have no problem this time around.
"I've been more focused, and I've had a lot of time to train," Jackson said. "When you take a long time off from training, your body goes into shock when you have hard camp. This time my body is doing good, and this time I'm more prepared."
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