Former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson thinks what Conor McGregor is doing is cool. But, “Rampage” says he was the first.
In a recent interview with Yahoo Sports, Jackson explained that he still dislikes fighting wrestlers. He thinks it corrupts the sport.
“I do complain about that, but it has nothing to do with me not having my heart into it. That just shows how much heart I have and how much emotion I have, because I think those guys are messing up our sport. Our sport has gotten so popular with all the excitement and the people like Dan Henderson, Wanderlei Silva, Chuck Liddell, Vitor Belfort, Tito Ortiz. Tito was a wrestler, but he’d take you down and ground and pound you. Those are the guys who made this sport super popular.
“But then you get guys like King Mo and, with all due respect, Rashad Evans and D.C. [Daniel Cormier], who just like hugging people on the ground. You hear the people complaining about that, and I don’t want to fight that way. I want to have exciting fights. If we ask fans to buy tickets and come down and sit there and watch fights for hours, we have to give them their money’s worth.”
Jackson did have one fighter of late in mind that he wanted to praise.
“That guy ain’t laying on top of no one,” Jackson said about Conor McGregor.
“I was the first Conor. I was Conor Mc-[N-word].” Jackson repeatedly stated.
“He can talk and say what he wants and talk about money and say he’s in it for the money and nobody opens their mouth and says anything negative about what he is saying,” Jackson said.
“I’ve been doing the same stuff, but everybody’s trying to shut me up. And then there are people who take me out of context and say, ‘Oh, he’s just in it for the money. He don’t love this no more.’ You know what? What I do is try to entertain people. It’s all I’ve ever tried to do. I’m an entertainer and I’m always going to try to entertain people.”
