Former UFC Light Heavyweight champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson recently spoke to MMAJunkie.com about his loss to Rashad Evans at UFC 114 and and his upcoming fight with Lyoto Machida later this month. Here are some highlights of what Rampage said about:
His Loss To Rashad Evans: “I know exactly the reason I lost that fight, and I knew I lost that fight before I even stepped in the cage. 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. 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.”
Being Prepared For Machida: “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.”
