Quinton "Rampage" Jackson Reportedly Quits UFC

Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, former UFC light-heavyweight champion and coach on the latest season of The Ultimate Fighter, has reportedly quit the Ultimate Fighting Championships (UFC). Jackson made his announcement on his official website at rampage-jackson.com. After the completion of this season of The Ultimate Fighter, Rampage was set to face Rashad Evans, the rival coach this season, at UFC 107. Perhaps his disagreements with UFC President Dana White over Jackson's filming of the upcoming "The A-Team" movie led to this announcement and supposed decision. But one has to wonder why Jackson, still an arguably viable contender to make another run for the light-heavyweight title, would leave the UFC, which is widely regarded as the premier MMA organization in the world.

After seeing Quinton Jackson's antics on last week's premiere episode of The Ultimate Fighter, I would not be surprised to find out that this is just a ploy to either gain attention or even renegotiate a contract with the UFC. Fans of the show witnessed one of the strangest things ever seen by a coach - Rampage, the ringside coach, walked away from ringside before the fight was even over. His fighter, while being thoroughly manhandled, was clearly a game fighter who was just matched up badly against a good wrestler who kept taking him down. And miracle comebacks have happened in the waning seconds of an MMA match. I have seen it personally and will certainly see it again.

I have personally never seen such a thing even from a football team being thrashed 50-0. Obviously, coaches know that their athletes are going to lose sometimes and even be dominated by the opponent. Jackson showed a total lack of class and continues to show that lack of class by announcing that he is quitting the UFC, reportedly without discussing the matter with White or other UFC officials. However, I cannot fault him if he has a game plan in mind and is confident that he will end up with a better deal down the line or some other incentive for "coming back" to the UFC.

Almost as bad as that was Jackson's amateurish coaching during the match. He kept telling his man that he better "get up" but shouted no specific directives whatsoever. There was no professional direction being given by Jackson. I am personally not a fighter and do not train MMA, but I'm pretty sure a coach has to do more than tell his fighter to "get up" ad nauseam. It was as if Jackson didn't have the slightest idea about MMA terminology or how to instruct a fighter to escape from his guard position.

Perhaps Jackson is just one of those guys who instinctively knows what to do but cannot articulate how to do it. After all, not all experts in a field are good teachers. Incidentally, this highlights the contrived way that the UFC selects its coaches for The Ultimate Fighter. Coaches are selected to promote rivalries between the two coaches. This is a smart business decision, as the UFC has exploded in popularity (as seen through its pay-per-view success) since Spike TV started airing The Ultimate Fighter. However, this does not mean that they are getting good coaches. Nonetheless, the UFC deserves some credit for providing assistant coaches and trainers for each team, some of whom are well qualified.

If Jackson is banking on actually quitting the UFC and relying on his acting career, he is taking a mighty gamble. This is not the first time that MMA fighters or wrestlers have appeared in movies, and most have met with limited success. Only The Rock (a professional wrestler) has achieved phenomenal success when taking this route, and The Rock is frankly far more charismatic than Rampage Jackson.

I predict Rampage will be right back in the UFC if this is anything more than a short-lived publicity stunt. After all, BJ Penn left and came back. Tito Ortiz left and came back. Randy Couture "retired" and came back. Clearly, the big paychecks in MMA are coming from the UFC's pocketbooks. Without any reasonable alternatives, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson has not seen his last days in the Ultimate Fighting Championships.