The heated battle between UFC light heavyweights, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, and, “Sugar” Rashad Evans, reached a boiling point during the UFC 114 conference call. With the fight less than two weeks away, both men are clearly itching to get their hands on each other.

At first, the call started off normally. UFC President, Dana White, confirmed that the winner of the Jackson vs. Evans matchup would get the next title shot against current champion, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua.

Then things got out of control. During various points in the conversation, both men were yelling at each other so much that majority of their comments were drowned out.

After the usual fight promotion hyperbole, the talk became more personal and insulting. At one point, Evans accused Jackson of presenting a negative image of himself as an African-American by dumbing down his intelligence.

“He does his little sambo thing,” Evans said. “He says, ‘Oh black-on-black crime,’ and ‘Oh, you can’t use big words. I’m stupid.’ Come on, I’ve talked to the dude. He’s pretty smart. He knows what’s going on. He says it’s comedy? Why perpetuate the stereotype you’re stupid? You’re not stupid. Why perpetuate the stereotype that you can’t think, you can’t understand big words? You can’t read. All that stupid stuff.”

Jackson retorted with his own prejudicial viewpoint.

“I never said all that,” Jackson said. “That’s another angle for you to try and talk smack. Go ahead. I do what I do, you do what you do. Why act all cocky and fake and play with your nipples and look all gay? Why do you do that? Why do you go that way? Why do you portray the stereotype of a black gay man, if you want go that way? Play with your nipples and act all gay, wear those little, tight shorts.”

“That’s what I wear,” Evans said.

“I know, because you’re gay,” Jackson said.

Trying to regain control of the conversation, White put on his promoter’s cap and continued to hype the main event.

“The WWE stuff is when the guys try to hype it up and make it look that way. These two don’t like each other,” White said. “It doesn’t get any more real than this. It’s a fight. I think people enjoy that, when two guys generally want to fight each other.”

Despite the immature back-and-forth between Jackson and Evans, a bit of the history behind their distaste for one another was revealed.

According to Jackson, back in 2004, he attended a fight between his teammate, Hector Ramirez, and Evans. “Sugar” won the bout and, in the middle of celebrating, walked over to “Rampage” and asked to train with him. Apparently, Jackson considered the timing to be disrespectful. Evans said Jackson was his favorite fighter and he simply wanted to introduce himself. Fast forward to 2009 and the animosity grew after Evans reportedly confronted Jackson backstage after “Rampage” defeated Keith Jardine at UFC 96.

If “Rampage” is successful against Evans and moves on to fight “Shogun” for the title, will he call Rua “gay” for opting to wear his traditional vale tudo shorts? Let’s hope not. While hyping a fight is part of the game, Evans and Jackson both veered into unnecessary territory. Imagine the potential fallout if the NAACP or GLAAD were on the call for some reason? As MMA fans, most of us can differentiate between simple trash talk and hate speech, but a layman may take the words as a true testament of the sport as a whole. Some will say that people are becoming overly sensitive and this is a non-issue. Perhaps they’re correct, but, the point is, there will always be someone looking for a reason, any reason, to hold MMA back. Why give them fuel to add to the fire?

(Source: MMA Fighting)