After former UFC light heavyweight champion, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson took a hiatus from fighting to pursue an acting career, many fans went to the internet to chastise his perceived lack of dedication to the sport. It wasn’t because Jackson had taken a role in the feature film version of the popular 80’s television show, the A-Team; it stemmed from his decision to abruptly drop out of a scheduled bout at UFC 107 in his hometown of Memphis, Tennessee. Despite having agreed to fight, Jackson instead left to begin production for the movie.

UFC President, Dana White, called Jackson out on his unprofessionalism, resulting in a war of words that played out over cyberspace. At one point, Jackson even declared that he was retiring from MMA. Fast forward a few months later and “Rampage” was back and ready to enter the Octagon.

Jackson will finally square off against Rashad Evans at UFC 114 on May 29 in Las Vegas, Nevada. To this day, he isn’t sure why the fans made such a big deal over his decision to pursue acting.

“I still want to clear [something] up, some of my fans don’t understand why I didn’t fight Rashad in the beginning. I don’t think the fans that don’t understand now, I don’t think they’ll ever understand. Just because I’m a fighter, doesn’t mean I can’t do other things. I just want my fans to know no matter what, even though I haven’t been in the cage for a while, people think that I went Hollywood, people always got negative stuff to say. People always underestimate me. I’ve been in this game for a while; I just think it’s funny. I’m just gonna go out there and do my job. I wanna knock Rashad out as quick as possible and get on with my career.”

At the end of 2008, Jackson and Evans appeared to be on a collision course. Evans had just won the light heavyweight title and Jackson was fresh off a victory over rival Wanderlei Silva. “Rampage” fully expected to square off against the new champ in his next bout; however, the UFC pitted him against Evans’s teammate, Keith Jardine, instead.

Meanwhile, Evans would lose the belt during his first title defense against Lyoto Machida. Jackson believes that had Evans remained the champion, the bout would’ve come to fruition much earlier. Instead, the two were partnered up as coaches during The Ultimate Fighter 10.

“If Rashad would have had the belt back then, I would have fought him most likely. There was a good chance that I would have fought him, but the dude didn’t even have the belt. After I knocked out Wanderlei I was supposed to be fighting for my belt next. So here I am. Now I’m really motivated to fight Rashad because of his mouth.”

“Rampage” has said in the past that his main motivation for fighting is the paycheck, not the chance to be the alpha male. Yet, he does covet the opportunity to retaliate against those he feels have been disrespectful.

“I don’t fight for glory and fame like some fighters. I don’t wanna walk around acting all tough coz I’m a fighter. But when people run they mouth like Rashad, they get dealt with. I hope he learns his lesson.”

UFC 114 will be broadcast on pay-per-view. Select preliminary fights will be shown on Spike TV.

(Source: Bisping.tv)