An injury in training camp kept former titleholder Quinton "Rampage" Jackson from doing enough running to make weight for this weekend's Ultimate Fighting Championship show, he said.
Quinton Jackson always made weight for his bouts before this weekend.
CAPTIONBy Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press via APJackson on Friday's officially weighed 211 pounds for his bout against light-heavyweight Ryan Bader at UFC 144. That means Jackson was overweight by six pounds, a significant amount in a sport where athletes typically get no more than a one-pound allowance.
Bader agreed to the fight on Sunday (10 p.m. ET Saturday, pay-per-view) anyway. In addition to his regular payout, he will receive 20% of Jackson's purse for the failure to make weight.
"I didn't come here to collect some show money and go home," Bader said. "I came here to fight and fight Rampage, so that's what we're going to do.
All other fighters for UFC 144 made weight.
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Although Jackson declined to specify his injury, it kept him from running for much of his camp, he told Fuel TV. A doctor advised him not to fight, Jackson said, but he felt obligated to continue because he had campaigned fervently to take part in UFC's first show in Japan in more than a decade.
"I didn't want to miss this fight because this fight was so important to me and I fought so hard to get it," said Jackson, who first became an MMA star in Japan's Pride Fighting Championships. "I kept training even with my injury. I trained on other things. I didn't take time off and I kept training and my weight suffered. It had to."
His injury has "pretty much" healed by now, Jackson said. But the recovery came too late for him to put in enough time running to shed weight.
Still, Jackson believed he would make the 205-pound cut as recently as two hours before Friday's weigh-ins, he said. Between the time he arrived in Japan and weigh-ins, Jackson cut 21 pounds but simply couldn't shed the last six that he needed.
"It's the most weight I had to cut in my life," Jackson told Fuel.
Jackson never missed weight before now, but he has openly admitted that he lets himself get out-of-shape between fights. He once declined a title fight on six weeks' notice because it wasn't enough time for him to cut weight while still training properly.
After weigh-ins, Bader openly mulled Jackson's level of motivation for the bout.
"I kind of question, 'Did he really take it that seriously?' " Bader told Fuel. "It just kind of puts that in my mind, 'I want this. Does he?' "
Before Jackson mentioned his injury, Fuel commentator Rich Franklin — also a fighter in UFC's light-heavyweight division — also wondered about his level of interest in the fight.
Jackson responded angrily to Franklin's comments.
"My friend already texted me what Rich Franklin said," Jackson said. "Rich Franklin should watch his mouth before I smack him the next time I see him. ... You don't question if a fighter's taking a fight seriously or not. I take all my fights seriously. I'm tired of people saying that."
Jackson shouldn't take offense, Franklin said on Fuel.
"When you start calling out a fighter out like that, obviously, they're going to get a little upset," Franklin said. "He took it personally. It wasn't meant to be that way."
And he wants a rematch with Frank Mir, the idiot.
