The Rise and Fall of Rampage Jackson: Part 4

Ladies and gentlemen,

We ended part 3 of the Rise and Fall of Rampage Jackson with his famous third and final bout against Wanderlei "The Axe Murderer" Silva.  After having been brutally knocked out by Wanderlei twice before, paying him back in kind must have tasted especially sweet.  He may not have been the UFC world champion any longer, but at least he earned a brutal win over his own personal boogie man.

This win put Rampage at the front of the line for a title shot.  The man who had taken his title, Forrest Griffin, had just been knocked out by "Sugar" Rashad Evans.  The UFC announced that if Rampage won his next fight, he would face Rashad for the championship.

So who stood between Rampage and the title he so desperately wanted back?  A man who, on paper, was made for him.  Keith Jardine was a herky-jerky striker with a questionable chin.  The kind of guy Rampage feasted on back in the day.  Everyone expected Rampage to win easily, and probably by knockout.  And he did win, but it wasn't easy, and it wasn't by knockout.  Rampage looked flat.

Once again, Rampage had little answer for leg kicks.  In the first round, Jardine landed a bunch of them--enough to win the round on two of the judges' score cards.  He went back to it in the 2nd round, but Rampage landed one of his big left hooks.  That hook dropped Jardine, just as it had dropped Wanderlei Silva, but Jardine survived the onslaught, struggled back to his feet and managed to wobble Rampage with a big uppercut later in the round.  With seconds left in the round, Rampage flurried with punches, doing enough to win the round.

The third round was close.  Jardine landed more strikes.  His leg kicks were the big winner for him.  But Rampage landed the hardest strike--a right hand that dropped Jardine again. As before, he couldn't finish his hurt opponent.  Jardine survived.  Rampage's fate was left in the hands of judges.

And they gave the win to Rampage.

With that judge's decision, Rampage was set to fight for the title again.  Great news, right? But at the post fight press conference, Rampage said he wasn't sure he could make it.  His jaw was sore.

That's right.  His jaw was sore.  Now you readers who have been following my posts over the last few months will remember that I've written about how fighters always fight with injuries.  Always.  Even when they say they're injury free, they're simply saying that they don't have anything that incapacitates them.  They are still bruised and banged up from all the training they've been doing.  But, hey, they can walk.  It may hurt like heck when they hit something with their right hand, but they can still throw it.  So they do.

To be fair, I don't know how badly injured his jaw was.  It could be that every waking moment was torture for him.  I don't know.  Only he knows.  What I do know, however, is that Rampage Jackson did not take the offered title fight against Rashad Evans.  He turned it down to nurse his wounds.  The UFC then offered the title shot to Lyoto "The Dragon" Machida.  Lyoto made the most of his chance.  He knocked out Rashad Evans with a left hook in the 2nd round.

Had Rampage faced Rashad that night, he may very well have won.  Rashad, that night, was willing to trade strikes with Machida.  He was an undefeated fighter who had never been knocked out.  He figured he could take it almost as good as he gave it.  Lyoto changed his mind forever.  After the Lyoto fight, Rashad would fight far more conservatively, knowing in the back of his mind that he could, indeed, be knocked cold.  He would carry that mindset into the cage with him one year later when he, finally, faced Rampage.

I didn't use the word finally lightly in the last sentence.  Rampage and Rashad coached the 10th season of The Ultimate Fighter.  As is customary, at the end of the season they were supposed to fight each other.  

But Rampage received a phone call from Hollywood before the season finale--and what a phone call it was!  He was cast as B.A. Baracus in the film version of the hit 1980's television series: The A-Team.  He starred alongside Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, and Jessica Biel.

While this was a great opportunity for Rampage, it likely cost the UFC a ton of money.  All season long, the UFC had been promoting the match between Rampage and Rashad.  During the show, the fighters nearly came to blows on several occasions.  It was one of the most heated rivalries we have ever seen on The Ultimate Fighter.  After all the trash talk from both guys, they weren't fighting.  Dana White, President of the UFC, was very critical of Rampage's choice to choose the movie over the fight:

"He’s a fighter, that’s what he does for a living. Now I’m going through all this crap where I got another fighter saying ‘You know what, this isn't what I wanna do for the rest of my life, I wanna make movies, I wanna be a movie star, this is just a second career for me.’ Like I haven’t seen this one before. Rampage is a grown man. He’s acting like a baby right now but he’s a grown man. He wants to be in the movie business? Rampage, good luck to you, man. I hope you make it big — and I’m not being sarcastic because Rampage Jackson is a guy that I do like. But Rampage Jackson is a guy that doesn't always make the best decisions.”

So, yeah, he wasn't happy with Rampage.  He was even less happy when Rampage announced his retirement after hearing Dana's comments.  That's right. Quinton "Rampage" Jackson quit.  He retired.  But when Rampage finished filming The A-Team, he and Dana made up.  Dana even changed his tune, saying, "Rampage made the right decision.  The A-Team is the big summer hit this year, and from what I'm hearing from the guys in Hollywood, Rampage [nailed] it.  He did an awesome job."

But he only said this once Rampage had agreed to finally fight Rashad Evans.  The fight against Evans was pivotal in many ways.  Coming off the big Hollywood film, beating Rashad Evans would have been the perfect conclusion to a true-life story that was every bit as good as anything Hollywood could dream up. Rampage would have been next in line for a shot at the title and would be riding an all-time high.

But Rampage lost.  Rashad Evans outwrestled him.  Having tasted what it was like to be knocked out, Rashad Evans avoided a stand-up battle with Rampage.  He shot for takedowns at every opportunity, and worked his ground-n-pound from top position.  He never hurt Rampage, and Rampage actually did hurt him in one of their few exchanges, but Rashad did enough to win the 3-round decision.

Again, had Rampage faced Rashad for the title--back before Rashad was knocked out by Lyoto Machida--I think this would have been a very different fight.  Rashad may have slugged it out with Rampage.  If he had, Rampage might have beat him.  Heck, he almost knocked Rashad out in a fight where Rashad stubbornly refused to trade punches with him. But he waited.  And consequently, he lost a fight he might have won a year earlier.

Be sure to check back for the 5th installment of "The Rise and Fall of Rampage Jackson."  In it, I'll discuss Rampage's last fights in the UFC and look at his new run in Bellator.

Until then.