Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson continues to blame everybody but himself for his fall from grace in the UFC, and the latest person to get it in the neck is matchmaker Joe Silva.
“I think Joe Silva needs to be slapped in the face,” Rampage tells Bas Rutten in an interview for Inside MMA. “I’m sorry, you’ve got a fighter like me who likes to go out there and fight fights, so why do you keep giving me wrestlers who are going to take me down and hump me?”
‘Rampage’ also confirmed that he wanted to get out of his UFC contract as soon as possible, stating, “I don’t want to fight for the UFC no more.”
I’ve already stated in a couple of articles over the past week that Rampage has passed his sell-by-date in the UFC, and comments like these only strengthen that arguement.
The truth is that regardless of the opponent he’s been up against lately, wrestler or not, he’s looked a shadow of his former self.
What he chooses to forget is that Forrest Griffin stood with him for five rounds and took the title from him, Lyoto Machida got the better of him in the striking department and was very unlucky not to walk away with a win, Jon Jones comfortably beat him up both standing and on the mat, and Matt Hamill essentially offered himself up as a human punching bag and yet Jackson still couldn’t finish him.
I think in most cases I’m preaching to the choir here though. When I first wrote that last week that I thought the UFC should agree to his request and let him go I wasn’t sure if there would be some form of backlash from fans, but instead there seems to be fairly widespread agreement, or in some cases just indifference to the future of the former champion in the promotion.
Realistically, nobody who’s watched ‘Rampage’ in recent years can hand-on-heart say that he’s the same fighter he once was, and by continuing to rant to anyone who’ll listen and pass the buck he’s only damaging his own reputation.
Check out Rampage’s full interview with Rutten below.
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