Quinton “Rampage” Jackson talked to the media immediately after his loss to Ryan Bader at UFC 144. Rampage admits he was not surprised he lost his fight against Bader, simply because he injured his knee during a training session prior to the event. He tells us that this was the main reason why he missed weight during the weigh ins, but he would not back down. Rampage didn’t want to disappoint the Japanese crowd that was eagerly awaiting his return.
From Rampage Jackson:
“If I’m going to be critically honest, I’m not surprised that I lost the fight…I almost didn’t make it to the fight, but I didn’t want to pull out for the Japanese fans…I injured my knee pretty bad, and my doctor told me not to fight. But it wasn’t real serious. I didn’t need surgery or nothing, but he told me it wasn’t a good idea to fight. I decided to fight anyway… I re-injured the knee when Bader slammed me. It was one of those things. I was worried about it. Before the slam, I wasn’t doing a really good job. I was worried about it, and I had to lose a lot of weight since I couldn’t really run and stuff. It was downhill from there. I hurt my knee, and I just wanted to put on an exciting fight, and I was just happy to make it here and try and put on a show for the Japanese fans…I know I’m getting to the end of my career because I said I didn’t want to fight past 35. But honestly, before I hurt me knee, you guys should have seen the way that I was training. I’ve got really good sparring partners, and I’ve got this really good wrestler names Tyson Jeffries that kicks my butt, and in this camp, I was kicking his butt. I was taking him down and wrestling got real competitive. That’s how I hurt me knee because he’s one of the best wrestlers I know. I was sparring really good, and I was looking like a superstar, then I hurt me knee. That made me think, ‘Oh, man, I’ve got a lot more time to fight.’ When I got hurt, it was just unfortunate, but now, I know what I can do if I come in 100 percent.”
