Quinton “Rampage” Jackson was back in the news over the weekend, thanks to his role as coach for Team MMA at Triller’s Triad Combat.
But if you haven’t seen him in a movie lately, Jackson (38-14) believes there’s a reason why. After appearing in The A-Team in 2010 (a big screen adaptation of the television classic), Jackson signed with a major Hollywood talent agency — only for roles to dry up.
What agency? Endeavour (then WME-IMG), future owners of the UFC.
“I don’t know if I say this, I’ll get sued by the UFC, but all I can say is, after I did the A-Team, some organizations made it really hard for me to do other movies,” Jackson told Ariel Helwani this week on The MMA Hour this week (h/t MMA Fighting). “That’s all I can put out there. I can say I signed with one of the biggest agencies in Hollywood, and they didn’t do sh*t for me, and I felt like it was on purpose. Actually, I know it was on purpose because now they own UFC.”
“That’s why [after] the A-Team, you didn’t see me in nothing else big.”
That, and the UFC scrapping Jackson’s sponsorship deal with Reebok only to later partner up with the company, has left Jackson still seeing red when it comes to his old employer. So while the former UFC light heavyweight champion appeared to enjoy his role with Triad Combat — especially given the mixed martial artists defeated Team Boxing at the event — there’s another chance at recognition Rampage says he would turn down: the UFC Hall of Fame.
Rampage replied “No, f*ck them,” when asked on The MMA Hour about being inducted into the Hall of Fame. “I don’t fight for no Hall of Fame. What do you get for being in the Hall of Fame?”
Jackson went on to explain that “MMA fighters, we’re not like baseball players, we’re not like football players, we don’t get no pension or nothing like that. Those guys get in the Hall of Fame, they’ve got pensions and all that sh*t. Honor me with a check. I got a lot of injuries and pain for making the UFC a lot of money and selling a lot of pay-per-views, selling a lot of tickets. What do I give a f*ck about being in the Hall of Fame? To be famous? I didn’t fight to be famous.”
Jackson last competed under the Ultimate Fighting Championship banner in 2015 — due to a contract dispute with Bellator MMA — and has long been at odds with Dana White and co. Back in 2014, he accused White, who a year earlier had claimed Jackson earned upwards of $15 million from 2007 to 2012, of lying to the public about his salary.
He last fought under the Bellator MMA banner in 2019, and wound up finished within a round by Fedor Emelianenko in a heavyweight fight. Rumors swirled over the weekend that Jackson could be paired up in a boxing bout with former champ Shannon Briggs, who served as coach of Team Boxing at Triad Combat. However, Briggs turns 50 next month, and has not competed since 2016.
