Quinton Jackson
Quinton Ramone Jackson, known by his ring name of Rampage Jackson, is an American former mixed martial artist, actor, kickboxer, professional wrestler, and online streamer. During the course of his mixed martial arts career, Jackson won the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship, the Bellator Season 10 Light Heavyweight Tournament Championship, and unified the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship with the Pride FC World Middleweight Championship belt. Due to his eccentric personality and aggressive fighting style, Jackson became a star in Japan during his tenure with Pride FC and following his move to the UFC, he helped pioneer MMA's growth into a worldwide sport.
Background
Jackson is from Memphis, Tennessee, and had a difficult childhood. He began selling drugs from a young age and was involved in many street fights. His drug-addicted father disappeared when Jackson was only 10 years old, before returning to his life in 2003. Jackson had his first experience with combat sports as a wrestler for Raleigh-Egypt High School, enrolling at the school as a 17-year-old freshman, where his career included All-State honors in his senior year after wrestling for fifth in the state tournament at. In high school, Jackson also befriended fellow Bellator light heavyweight Jacob Noe, a karate practitioner who taught Jackson striking techniques, in exchange for wrestling techniques. Originally, Jackson intended to pursue a career in professional wrestling after graduating high school, but ultimately extended his amateur wrestling career at Lassen Community College in Susanville, California, before being expelled after a fight with a teammate. After discovering mixed martial arts, Jackson trained in Las Vegas with BAMMA fighter Lewis Rumble.Martial arts career
Early career
Impressed by the success of other wrestlers in MMA, Jackson decided to try his own hand at the sport. Jackson built up a record of 10 wins and 1 loss fighting for a variety of smaller scale American promotions, including King of the Cage, Gladiator Challenge and Dangerzone. Jackson gained a reputation for lifting his opponents and slamming them to the mat. Jackson's successful first MMA Title shot against Rocko Hammerhands Henderson proved to be the beginning of many upsets.Pride Fighting Championships
In 2001, Japan's Pride organization marketed Jackson as a homeless person. Jackson, still a relatively unknown fighter, first was matched at Pride 15 against fellow wrestler and Japanese superstar Kazushi Sakuraba, who was at that time Pride's most prominent domestic fighter. Jackson lost due to a rear naked choke from Sakuraba. Jackson captivated the Japanese fans with his exciting performance and also gained their respect and admiration for his valiant effort against the much more experienced Sakuraba.After beating pro-wrestler Alexander Otsuka in a fight for the Battlarts promotion, Jackson was invited back for Pride 17 where he scored a knockout victory over Otsuka's training partner, Yuki Ishikawa. In his next fight, Jackson was disqualified for a low blow against Daijiro Matsui.
Jackson went on to defeat Masaaki Satake, Igor Vovchanchyn, Kevin Randleman and Mikhail Illoukhine in successive Pride bouts. He also made forays into kickboxing with a pair of victories over kickboxer Cyril Abidi, under K-1 rules. The first kickboxing bout between Abidi and Jackson was on July 14, 2002. Many expected Jackson's wild style of striking would not translate into the K-1 ring, thinking he would be outclassed by such a schooled and disciplined striker as Abidi. Instead, Jackson overwhelmed Abidi from the opening bell, and knocked him down less than a minute into the bout. Jackson then scored a hard underhand right to the chin of Abidi, knocking him out at 1:55 in the first round.
Later in the year, Abidi wanted to prove that his loss to Jackson was a fluke, and faced him on the New Year's Eve Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye card, again under K-1 rules. Jackson laid a lot of criticism to rest by once again defeating Abidi, this time via decision. It would be Jackson's last kickboxing bout, as he returned to full-time MMA competition afterwards.
Rivalry with Wanderlei Silva
Around this time, Jackson began stating his intentions to capture the Pride Middleweight title from Wanderlei Silva. In the opening round of Pride's 2003 Middleweight Grand Prix, Jackson won a split decision over Murilo Bustamante. Three months later, Jackson defeated UFC fighter Chuck Liddell in the tournament's semi-finals at Pride Final Conflict 2003 by corner stoppage, putting him in place to battle Silva in the tournament finals that night. After taking Wanderlei Silva down and bloodying him, a stand-up was called by the referee and Jackson was stopped with a series of heavy knees to the head, leading to a referee stoppage.Jackson continued his Pride career with a TKO victory over Ikuhisa Minowa at Pride Shockwave 2003. He then faced Ricardo Arona at Pride Critical Countdown 2004 with the winner to face Wanderlei Silva. Late in the first round Arona caught Jackson in a triangle choke, Jackson picked up Arona and powerbombed him into the canvas, earning the KO win.
Prior to his rematch with Silva, Jackson made headlines with the public announcement of his conversion to Christianity. In the fight itself, Jackson floored Silva in the opening round and later scored a takedown which led to a series of knees and elbows at the end of the round. Jackson scored another takedown in the second round, but Silva escaped to his feet and proceeded to knock out Jackson with multiple knee strikes to the head.
Final bouts with Pride
Jackson's next two bouts were against Silva's Chute Boxe training camp partners. He won a split decision over Murilo "Ninja" Rua, but fell to Rua's younger brother, Shogun Rua, via TKO soccer kicks to the headSoon after his loss to Shogun, Jackson was contacted by veteran boxing and MMA trainer Juanito Ibarra, who saw potential in Jackson's natural abilities but viewed his reputation as a hindrance. After a short conversation, Jackson entrusted Ibarra, a fellow born again Christian, with the managerial and training direction of his career.
Jackson then defeated Hirotaka Yokoi via TKO at Pride 30. In his final fight for Pride he won a unanimous decision over Yoon Dong-Sik at Pride 31
After Pride
On May 16, 2006, the World Fighting Alliance announced it had signed Jackson to a multi-fight deal. He defeated Matt Lindland by split decision at WFA: King of the Streets on July 22, 2006. "He is a good fighter", Jackson said. "I trained hard. He is an Olympic silver medalist. So much respect to him. I knew I had to bring it." He was caught in guillotine choke holds twice. Jackson managed to get out both times, and slammed Lindland a few times before cutting the bridge of his nose with ground and pound on his way to the win.Ultimate Fighting Championship
On December 11, 2006, Zuffa, the parent company of the UFC, announced it had acquired select assets from the World Fighting Alliance, which ceased operations as part of their sales agreement. Jackson's WFA contract was one of the assets acquired.In an interview on the UFC program Inside the UFC, Jackson said it was finally time for him to enter the organization, and that he had not before because of his friendship with UFC fighter Tito Ortiz. Jackson said that because Ortiz was one of the biggest stars in the UFC, and that both were fighters in the same weight class, he did not want to interfere.
Jackson made his UFC debut at UFC 67, where he knocked out Marvin Eastman, avenging an early career loss.
Winning the Light Heavyweight Championship
At UFC 71 on May 26, 2007, Jackson faced UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Chuck Liddell in a title rematch of their 2003 Pride bout. Approximately 90 seconds into the first round, Jackson caught Liddell with a right hook to the jaw that sent him down to the mat, where Jackson landed a few more clean shots on the ground before a referee stoppage at 1:53 seconds to capture the UFC Light Heavyweight title.Jackson then defeated Pride Middleweight Champion Dan Henderson at UFC 75, on September 8, 2007, in London, England via unanimous decision to unify the two organizations' titles.
''The Ultimate Fighter 7''
On December 9, 2007, it was announced by Dana White at Spike TV's Video Game Awards show that Jackson will be one of the two coaches of The Ultimate Fighter 7. At the conclusion of the season, Jackson fought the other coach and number one contender Forrest Griffin at UFC 86. During the show, Jackson showed his temper after his fighters repeatedly lost to Team Forrest. Going into the semifinals, only two of Jackson's original fighters made the cut while Griffin had 6 of his fighters advance. In the finale, Team Forrest's pick, Amir Sadollah beat Team Rampage's top fighter C.B. Dollaway via armbar in the first round.On July 5, 2008, he fought Griffin for the light heavyweight championship at UFC 86 and lost a judges' decision. In the first round of the fight Jackson delivered two solid power punches, and soon after knocked Griffin down. Jackson tagged him throughout the fight. In contrast, Griffin pushed the pace of the fight from start to finish and stayed much more aggressive than Jackson for most of the fight with multiple leg kicks and by mounting Quinton and landing elbows and punches to his head. In later rounds Jackson managed to take Griffin down twice and work his own ground game, almost executing his signature power bomb. Many took note as Jackson was showing obvious discomfort from the effects of the leg kicks. The next three rounds were described by Sherdog as "somewhat uneventful" with Jackson searching for the knockout punch while Griffin threw whatever he could with long jabs, leg and body kicks. Griffin was awarded a unanimous decision.
After the fight both Griffin and his coach Randy Couture expressed that they thought the fight was close, and Jackson's coach, Juanito Ibarra, had planned to protest the unanimous decision with the Nevada State Athletic Commission. However, after speaking with the commission about his complaint, he decided not to file because he was informed that even if the judges scores were changed to his satisfaction, the fight would still result in a victory for Griffin by a majority decision. Soon after the fight, Jackson fired his longtime trainer/manager Ibarra. There were talks of an immediate rematch after the fight.
Following the loss of his belt, Quinton was involved in a hit and run incident and a high speed police pursuit in Newport Beach, California, charges followed to which he would plead guilty.