Dana White: “Rampage” Acting Like a Baby, Can Do What He Wants
UFC President Dana White today appeared on the Carmichael Dave Show to respond to Quinton “Rampage” Jackson’s Tuesday announcement that he was “done fighting” to pursue a full-time acting career, saying that the popular former light heavyweight champ is “acting like a baby” but is free to do what he wants.
Here’s what White had to say (via MMA Fanhouse):
Rampage is a grown man. He’s acting like a baby right now, but he’s a grown man. If he wants to be in the movie business, Rampage, good luck to you, man. I hope he makes it big, and I’m not being sarcastic. … I hope the movie thing works out for him. If that’s what he truly wants to do, and that’s what he feels and that’s what he thinks his career is, I wish him all the luck in the world.”
I just found out, too. Rampage has been a friend of ours. We really like Rampage. I’m not going to get into the battle of who’s done what for who and all that stuff. We’ve done a lot for him and yes, he’s been there and fought. The guys who come in here, they’re fighters. That’s what they do. We give them fights and they fight. And they make money and we make money. That’s the way it works.
I got so pissed off. I’m speaking my mind, he thinks I’m trying to ruin his movie career.
He’s a grown man. He can do whatever he wants to do.
Tags: Dana White, Quinton Jackson
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In the Fanhouse article it states that Dana said that he did not pressure Rampage into fighting Rashad over Machida. Just to go ahead and get that out there.
Thanks for that extra info Justin. I agree with Dana, after reading Rampage’s statement he did sound like a baby. I am also surprised that ther is not one expletive in this article’s quotes. Strange, Dana must be under the weather or something.
Or completly over it, ya know….
I think this is pretty much the best reply Dana could have provided. Didn’t sling sh@t, just said it professionally and didn’t drag it out.
Ball is now in Rampage’s court.
Reading this, it’s obvious that the fertitas calmed dana white down before he gave a response
Well done!
This could hella be a he said she said kind of deal. I’ll just say that anytime this happens with any fighter, it sucks but it usually blows over and the ufc and mma life goes on. JCHOL was right, i think rashad will become #2 and maybe anderson silva and hendo will move back up to 205 and see this as an opportunity. Being a movie fan, i don’t know how well rampage will do and what kind of roles he will get. Movies unfortanetly aren’t just about acting, but about marketability. Take a look at “THE ROCK”. He’s a decent actor in his own right and pretty marketable. But it’s not like he’s had a huge career or any real “big roles”. Rampage might be too injured to fight or just be “acting like a baby”, but i don’t see this as a good decision for him to just plain quit. Look at huerta…he wants back in.
The Rock’s best performance was in ‘Be Cool’, hilariously fantastic role for him.
But I agree, I don’t think that this is a good move for Jackson but if he wants to do…
I thought he was better in The Rundown
thought he was good in the “Walking Tall” movie
Dana curses lots, and talks ****, but people forget that he’s a business man and a damn good one. Anyone who says any different should look at what he’s done for MMA in the past 7 years and read the statement above.
Dana White actually handled that better than I thought he would.
Maybe turning 40 has mellowed him somewhat, or maybe he just realized that in the big picture, Rampage Jackson walking away from the sport doesn’t really matter all that much.
Wish the guy well, settle up with him financially [if necessary], and move on with the business of running the planet’s top MMA org. Couldn’t have handled that any better myself…
Just remember how much SMACK Dana talked about Mirko…two weeks later, he had another contract. I bet we see Rampage late Winter/Spring.
Great Point GarRule
have to agree with you there….. a lot of fighters say they quit or retire even hall of famers come back to fight. once a fighter always a fighter.
Honestly, the Sopa Opera BS of this sport is a complete turn-off.
Amen.
At the end of the day Rampage needs the UFC more than they need him. Espeacially if he wants to provide for his family, its not like hes gonna be the next wesley snipes. he would have and still could make millions with the UFC. If thats not “providing” then I dont know what is.
I completly agree man.
Wesley Snipes? You mean income tax-evading prisoner #123ABC456XYZ?
When Rampage does not make it in the movie bizz He’ll come back, and i’ll put my money on him not making it in the movies!! You leave fighting for the A-team movie blows me away!
Rampage is being a baby. Who cares really because now all he does is run his mouth… “this fight won’t go to decision” yet his fight with forrest went to decision. He would get smashed by a faster, stronger, and more technical Evans
I would like to request that you pick one user name please and thank you
No cussing, damn Dana might of grown up a little.
My boy mk4 can back me up on this, but over in the editorial offices of Marvel Comics, they have a saying that goes something like, “nobody dies forever.”
If you’ve ever read any Marvel Comics, you’re pretty familiar with the fact that characters live, die, and live agian thru an assorted means of highly improbably but equally entertaining and marketable methods.
Same philosophy sometimes applies in the UFC.
Expanding a bit in GarRule’s point, guys like Mirko CroCop are anathema one day, and being mentioned in connection with the HW title in promotional vids the next. Tito Ortiz is a sh!tstain one day, hugging it out with Dana White the next, and scoring a fat contract for a reasonably easy fight against aging wonder Mark Coleman the day after that. At one time the PRIDE guys like Rampage, Hendo, Wand, etc. “couldn’t carry the gym bags” of UFC talent like Liddell, Hughes, and Couture, Now these PRIDEful men aren’t just in the UFC, but they have Dana on speeddial, are making hundreds of thousands of dollars, and are near or at the top of their respective weightclasses.
I’m almost expecting UFC exiles like Matt Lindland and Pat Miletich to pop back up in the Octagon.
The only constant in our sport, and the UFC, is change.
Rampage should use the examples of men like Couture and Huerta to suss out how unlikely the transition from MMA star to movie star is.
At least a pro wrestler like Hulk Hogan or Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is coming from an industry that is predicated primarily on scripted entertainment, so they have at least a passing familiarty with the new environment.
Someone like Couture will wince every time Scorpion King 2 airs on TNT, as it is definitely NOT a “new classic”. And how proud will Cung Le be in 18 months when he finds his once-valued chop socky flick in the $5 bin at WalMart, and is reminded of how he dropped the Strikeforce 185 belt to be a part of it?
Hopefully Rampage will be back, and with a better understanding of how the world outside of MMA works. IMO he still has some good fights left in him, and I’d prefer seeing them in the Octagon against Evans or Anderson Silva as opposed to in some pro wrestling ring in Saitama against Bob Sapp or Hong Man Choi…
o this is definitely. a marketing move.. rampage don’t fight for 2 years then they bring him back on lets say a new years eve card? yeah GUARANTEED it will break the record for sales in UFC history..
jcohl,
i agree 100% dude, you nailed it
Hardly see Rampage goin very far in a movie career with his st…st…studering problem.
*stuttering
Dana is just good at making someone look like an idiot. A couple weeks ago he was ripping on about his role and losing out on money. Rampage comes out with a response to that so now Dana is taking another route making rampage look dumb for his blog.
No one is making Rampage look dumb, he’s doin it all on his own MIGGY24!
Please use one account and one username, thankyou…
Rampage thinks this is the start of an acting career. It’s just not. he is fun to watch for short periods of time because of his antics. But that can’t carry a full movie, much less a career. BA is a custom fit role for a guy like him, and that will be the end of it. He may get some little roles here and there, but nothing like a lead role. Even the rock overlapped his career for a few movies before making the move to acting full time… and the rock can actually speak clearly!
Bad bad move rampage… unless like someone pointed out that this is just a marketing tool to amp up a fight paycheck a year or two down the road. After all this, I really hope we never see the guy again. There is puh-lenty of other talent at light heavyweight that the division doesn’t need this kind of thing.
Extremely well put MMAFAN
But i would hope rampage returns. This is the only guy to knock both wanderlei and chuck lidell out who also beat the legend hendo and who was crowned the first Undisputed champ ever.
right about that, only heard him doing the “A-Team” movie. Acting is his new career?? dont know about that. He’s gauranteed to make money in the UFC period! in the movie industries i dont think so.
Dana loves a good fight and Rampage brings that with him.
So, everybody should be right. will see Rampage sometime again in the future.
roger huerta all over again…
Next thing you know Chuck Liddell is gonna be a full time dancer and officially retire from UFC if he makes it out of the first cut on DWTS.
After this I’m surprised people still care what Rampage does or doesn’t do. He’s starting to take steps to make himself completely irrelevant to the MMA world. Knock up job on Dana’s part, his brief dismissal of Rampage was about all that needed to be done, and all Rampages whining rant merited.
This is sort of Rampage’s 15 minutes of drama fame, just like Couture got back when he had his falling out with the UFC.
Yes, it completely dominated the first couple of MMA news cycles, but eventually we all moved on, and Couture wised up and came back to finish up where it all started.
IMO neither Rampage nor Dana White looks good here, but Dana’s media statement today is a definite step in the right direction. Now its up to Rampage to sort his part of this mess out, or not, as he sees fit.
It does bear mentioning that he has a lot of fans who support him, and some who may indeed support him as he tries to transition into action films and such.
Honestly, if Rampage plays his cards right, he can come back in a year or so more popular than ever, and step back into the title hunt with a solid thumping of someone, maybe Rich Franklin?
One of my best friends and business partners is a diehard lifelong fan of pro wrestling in general, and the WWE in particular. He practically worships the ground that Vince McMahon walks on, and on occasion will carry on about how amazing a promoter he is.
In his opinion, this has the feel of what they call a “work” in that industry, by which I mean all of this drama is staged for some down-the-road payoff.
Possibly Rampage needed an extended sabbatical for health reasons, and had the opportunity to do the A-Team remake. Inorder to keep the fires burning, so to speak, this drama is manufactured for the fanbase, with all concerned cooperating and the fans none the wiser.
Apparently this type of thing is commonplace within the pro wrestling biz, which our sport occasionally bumps against in terms of some fighters and fans.
Ten months from now, Rampage will be mostly healed, and his film will drop. I’m guessing that his miraculous return to the UFC will coincide with the film’s release, SpikeTV will be airing those special sneak previews of the film on all of their shows and promoting the He11 out of the film, and Rampage will be back to his usual self-promoting and entertaining ways within the UFC, and preparing for a fight with someone like Franklin, Tito Ortiz, or even Chuck Liddell.
I could be wrong, but unless the unkind Internet rumors are true and Rampage is afflicted with some sort of mental and/or emotional disturbance, this issue on the surface makes little or no sense.
Consider the following:
SUDDENLY Rampage is feeling disrespected, AFTER the UFC stuck by him and his road rage incident and AGAIN featured him on their strongest mainstream media platform, The Ultimate Fighter?
NOW Rampage is conveniently too hurt to fight, but wasn’t hurt so badly when he agreed to the fight originally?
Also, this abrupt shift in Zuffa’s mindset towards Rampage?
One minute they are making the guy a huge MMA superstar in North America and handing him sweet opportunity after sweet opportunity, and the next they are disrespecting him and arm-twisting him into fights he didn’t want or ask for?
Too much here doesn’t add up, so I guess we’ll just have to wait this thing out, and revisit this in Summer 2010…
Im suprised more fighters dont attempt to break into the movies
Using the name they have built in MMA can net them a good paycheck
We all see the low-amounts paid to even the top fighters in MMA per fight
a decent movie lead can get you 2-3 times that amount with less training and risk of injury
Id be curious to see how much Rampage is getting for the movie compared to what he was offered for the fight – Id bet that its a big difference
Rampage fought back 2 back 2 back 2 back for them. and all he wanted the UFC to do is push the date back a few months for his movie but nooo what did Dana do? he gets on the net and dog the movie and his acting career. oh but Brock is getting all wwe? no its dana that cause all of these problems and im 100% sure he told he to fight rashad not lyto because Machida cant speak English and how the **** will that look with Machida standing there on the tv show saying nothing and rampage trying to tell jokes to a person that cant talk back to him. although i will miss rampage in the ring i will fellow him to the screen and he will make it
Maybe before you run down Dana White you should remember that if it weren’t for him, you probably wouldn’t even know who Rampage Jackson is, as most North American MMA fans didn’t before he got to the UFC.
And maybe before you run down Dana White you should remember that without him this sport would still be in its dark ages, with every fighter looking like Roy Nelson, and fighting NHB contests in truckyards across places like South Dakota and Alabama…
I can’t help thinking about one thing…
Rampage is basing his future acting career on playing a role made famous by Mr. T. T was also Clubber Lang in Rocky 3. Besides an episode of Diff’rent Strokes, what did Mr. T EVER do acting-wise the rest of his career?
(I pity the fool who don’t eat my cereal!)
Hey GarRule don’t forget: Mister T was an animated series that aired on NBC from 1983 to 1986, with a total of 30 episodes produced. Created by Ruby-Spears, the cartoon starred Mr. T as a coach to a gymnastics team (with a specific emphasis on members Jeff, Woody, Robin, and Kim), travelling the world while becoming involved in and solving various mysteries……LOL
Ah yes..but was that even his voice?? Does that even count as acting?
Is there going to be a Rampage cartoon about him traveling the country with a bunch of wolves solving crime??
Will B.A. Baracas 2010 have a metal chain around his neck instead of gold??
The most interesting part I think is what Rampage said about the UFC engineering drama. TBH I have had my own suspicions regarding this.. really I could care less about the rest of the stuff Rampage said.. that one thing got me wondering tho.. how much of the UFC is all about entertainment over being a legit sport.
topic is a bit old, anyway..
I’m with “cart” on this topic.
I have no clue how much those top fighters are paid, BUT i seriously doubt it’s even close [sic] to the amount he get’s for playing BA in the new A-Team movie (even though he is new to the movie business).
Since he has family&kids and isn’t the youngest anymore….. I think this is a very smart choice… finacial + healthwise – no matter if this is his first and last “major” role in a blockbuster movie.
The only one who REALLY acts like a “baby” imo is Dana White. This is just kindergarten-rhetorics – simply ridiculous.