Quinton “Rampage” Jackson is back in the UFC.
The promotion announced Saturday during the UFC Fight Night: Machida vs. Dollaway broadcast on Sportsnet 360 that the former light-heavyweight champion will return to the Octagon in 2015.
However, this announcement comes with some controversy.
Jackson spent 2007-2013 in the UFC before signing a multi-year deal with Bellator MMA, Spike TV and the professional wrestling promotion TNA Wrestling last June.
According to the UFC, Jackson has terminated his contract with Bellator, but Bellator’s president Scott Coker says otherwise.
“I haven’t been happy with my contract at Bellator for awhile, since after the pay-per-view with King Mo,” Jackson said on FOX Sports 1 after Saturday’ event. “Bjorn Rebney, I don’t know what happened. He left Bellator, got fired, I don’t know. The contract just wasn’t right. My manager and I, we were trying to fix it. Bellator, they didn’t want to fix it in 45 days. I terminated the contract.”
The 36-year-old went 3-0 in Bellator, knocking out UFC veteran Joey Beltran and former Bellator champion Christian M’Pumbu before winning a split decision over former Strikeforce champion Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal at Bellator 120 in May. The win over Lawal earned Jackson a title shot, however Bellator’s 205-pound champion is his training partner Emanuel Newton and Jackson had said on multiple occasions he had no desire to fight for the title while Newton is champ.
“It’s just one of those things where people don’t honour their contracts and it’s just not cool,” Jackson added. “You can be a big company and that means you don’t have to honour your contracts?”
Prior to his stint in Bellator, Jackson (35-11) had lost three straight fights in the UFC to Jon Jones, Ryan Bader and Glover Teixeira and had a public falling out with the promotion.
“The UFC, the one thing about them, they did honour their contract no matter what things went wrong with them,” Jackson explained. “At least they did honour their contract. You sign a contract for a reason. You’re bound by law to do what you say you’re going to do. If you can’t honour your contract, that’s the type of company I don’t really want to be associated with.”
The Memphis native became UFC champ when he knocked out Chuck Liddell at UFC 71. He also holds wins over the likes of Lyoto Machida, Dan Henderson and Wanderlei Silva and still believes he can do damage in the division.
“It hasn’t really hit me, but it sounds like most people are happy for me to come back,” Jackson, who is still one of the most popular fighters in the sport, told UFC.com. “I feel like I can put on some exciting fights. I don’t feel like there are a whole lot of people out there putting it on the line the way I do.”
Jackson hopes to fight sometime in the first half of 2015.
