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A day after Dana White made public comments responding to Quinton (Rampage) Jackson’s announcement he was retiring from fighting to continue his acting career, Jackson posted a new blog attempting to clarify his position.
Jackson, who was critical of the way he was treated by the UFC’s president in announcing his retiring from mixed martial arts on his website earlier in the week, wrote on Thursday his UFC experience was not all bad.
“Make no mistake the UFC treated me a lot better than Pride,” wrote Jackson, who previously fought in Japan for rival promotion Pride, which was later acquired by the UFC. “If you get hurt in training in a UFC fight (they) will send you to the best doctors. If you get hurt in a Pride fight most of the time they will tell me ‘oh you better take care of that!’”
The former light-heavyweight champion went on to say he was thankful for the money the UFC made him, including getting “hooked up” on merchandising deals. But he also said he “made both shows more money than they made me” and felt like he was in turn disrespected in his own country.
“Everything is not about how much money you make,” Jackson said. “You could be the richest man in the world but if nobody (respects) you then it don’t mean s—.”
White spoke on a radio show Wednesday criticizing Jackson for his decision to leave the UFC to pursue a career in acting. He also expressed disappointment that in doing so he was reneging on a promise to fight (Sugar) Rashad Evans. Jackson and Evans, who are opposing coaches on the current season of The Ultimate Fighter, have been engaged in a feud for months, both on and off the show.
In Thursday’s blog, Jackson suggested Evans has since challenged him to a fight outside the Octagon and he plans to accept it.
“So Rashad says he will fight me for free,” Jackson wrote. “I will gladly meet him at any gym (and) fight him just to shut his mouth up. (And) I mean that for real!”
NOTES: Wednesday’s second episode of the The Ultimate Fighter 10: Heavyweights drew 2.9 million viewers in the U.S. and was the top-rated program among men 18-34 (1.2 million) in all of television for the second week in a row, Spike TV said.
Its rating dipped from the premiere the prior week, which drew show-record 4.1 million viewers. The previous high had been 2.8 million who tuned in for the finale of the third season in 2006. The numbers are expected to rocket back up for next week when Kimbo Slice makes his first appearance in Octagon against former IFL champion Roy (Big Country) Nelson. The reality show airs in HD on Rogers Sportsnet. … Strikeforce has confirmed its Nov. 7 event, headlined by Fedor Emelianenko’s debut against Brett (The Grim) Rogers, will take place at the Sears Centre Arena in Chicago. … The Maximum Fighting Championship has signed former UFC middleweight contender Thales Leites, president Mark Pavelich said Thursday. Leites was cut by the UFC following two straight losses in which he performed poorly.
The full text of Rampage’s second blog entry:
Make no mistake the UFC treated me a lot better than Pride. If you get hurt in training in a UFC fight then will send you to the best doctors. If you get hurt in a Pride fight most of the time they will tell me “oh you better take care of that!” The UFC will always let you know in a timely matter who you will be fighting & give you enough time to train but with Pride if I knew 4 weeks ahead I would be happy cause most times they just give you a 2 weeks notice. Pride will rip you off on your merchandising but the UFC would find someway to hook you up on merchandising deals. Pride will make fights easier for certain fighters inside the ring (like standing up fights early). With the UFC whatever happens happens. The only thing I see the UFC needs to fix in this area is to get better judges. Ones who know about MMA & not from the boxing world.
The reason why I’m talking about all this is that I feel like this whole situation could have been avoided if UFC would have respected me more & rescheduled the fight about a month or more in my hometown, which I know fights can be rescheduled because of the Matt Hughes & Matt Serra was postponed due to injuries. Instead, Dana went on the internet & started talking bad about my decision. All we had to do was come to a certain type of argreement or understanding, which later came after a lot of trash talk from Dana. My manager flew to Vegas & talked to them & tried to work things out like a MAN. & still I keep quite & I didn’t talk trash back on the internet. The only reason why I’m even talking now is because I feel like I owe my fans an explanation because I am a MAN, a real MAN. Yeah I made good money with the UFC more than Pride, but I made both shows more money than they made me. I didn’t care too much about Pride treating me like crap cause I was an American in a Japanese company. Now in my own country, I feel like I’m being disrepected. Everything is not about how much money you make. You could be the richest man in the world but if nobody repsects you then it don’t mean shit. You can’t buy respect. It should be earned. & thats what I’m all about.
Now Rashad wanna put his two cents in. Rashad remains to be a boy under me. He wins a few fights, and some of them I thought the judges fell asleep during the fight & woke up & saw him playing with his nipples & guessed he won. He knocked Chuck Liddel out when Chuck wasn’t even the same man anymore. & now he thinks he’s on my level. Yeah he talks about how he beat Forrest & I lost. But when I fought Forrest that was the worst Rampage I had ever seen. & I still know in my heart I won that fight. So now he’s Mr. All Cocky & says I got a big mouth & talk a lot of smack. If my memory serves me correctly, he’s the one that got into my face after the Jardine fight & started talking trash when he was the one that was originally supposed to fight me that night, but he told Dana on the phone he didn’t want to fight. He wanted to keep his belt longer. Now, I’m not saying wether or not I would have beaten Machida, but I wouldn’t have went out like a bitch like the way he did. So I’m the one that was looking forward to the Rashad fight the most. I have always been a fighter my whole life. As a kid my family treated me like shit which made me the person who I am today. This is why when I meet people I treat people the way I want to be treated (unless they approach me wrong or piss me off). I grew up thinking that I wasn’t even important to my family which made me not even care about myself. That’s why I can get knee-ed in the face 15 times & come back for more. That’s why I can get my legs seriously hurt in a fight & still try to win. Thats why I can get my ribs broken in a fight & not tap out because my whole life I never thought I mattered to anybody or anybody cared about me. But now I have kids that love me & care about me & I’m not used to people caring about me but it feels good! I’m a very loyal person. Wolves are the most loyal animals on the planet. I was very loyal to the UFC, but now I owe all my loyalty to my kids… the ones who really care for me. The majority of my fights on the street I fought for free & they all were with emotion. I am a fighter, I will always be a fighter but my professional fights that were fought with emotion, I ended them all in devestating fashion. I am the wrong fighter that should fight pissed off professionally. I don’t even consider it fair. So Rashad says he will fight me for free. I will gladly meet him at any gym & fight him just to shut his mouth up. & I mean that for real!
When I told Dana I did not want my belt back & that I just wanted to make money, it was around the time when they gave me Vanderlei & actually it was around the same time when my mind wasn’t right (my mind was at TRUCK status) & that’s the way I felt because I felt I had been robbed out of my belt. After the Jardine fight I did want my belt back because my family was so proud of me when I was champion & I want to make my family proud cause now I finally feel like my family cares about me & they accept me & this is what I’ve been wanting my whole childhood… for my family to like me. If I got to beat some ass for my family to like me, so be it. But now, I’m a grown man & I’ll be damned if anybody disrespects me. I’m not having it, it’s not happening!
