Quinton Jackson Interview

[soo2bhuge]

RAMPAGE: "I WOULD LOVE TO FIGHT WANDERLEI AND SHOGUN AT THE SAME TIME!"
By Percy Crawford | October 11, 2007



FightHype.com recently caught up with undisputed light heavyweight champion Quinton "Rampage" Jackson to get an update on his future plans and much more. Jackson talks about his big win over Dan Henderson and wonders why he has yet to receive the Pride FC title. Plus, you don't want to miss what he had to say about Wanderlei Silva, Chuck Liddell, Shogun Rua and more. Check it out!

PC: How are you doing?

QJ: Everything is going good man. What about yourself?

PC: I'm good man. Trying to get a hold of you my man.

QJ: I hear you!

PC: Everything has been going alright with you?

QJ: Yeah, everything has been going pretty good. I'm doing alright; you know what I'm saying. I'm living it up. I'm blessed.

PC: I know you are a lot busier than you were when you first came down here. How is the media treating you?

QJ: It's just regular ol' regular ol'. God never gives you more than you can handle man. It's not too much; everything is good.

PC: Congratulations on becoming the undisputed light heavyweight champion!

QJ: Ah, thanks man. I appreciate that.

PC: How do you feel about your performance Page?

QJ: I'm not too thrilled with my performance to be honest with you. I feel like I could've knocked him out. I hate decisions. As long as I won, that's the only thing that really matters.

PC: Don't be so hard on yourself man. You held down someone who was supposed to be a better wrestler than you for the majority of the fight.

QJ: Yeah, that was the toughest fight of my life.

PC: That was your toughest fight?

QJ: That was my toughest fight. That was my longest fight as well.

PC: Was it tough fighting Dan being that he was a close friend of yours?

QJ: Nah, it wasn't that tough, you know what I'm saying? It wasn't that bad because when I get inside that cage, ain't nobody friends.

PC: Dog, why didn't they give you the Pride FC title in the ring after the fight?

QJ: I have no idea. I have to talk to my manager about that. Thanks for bringing that up. (Talking to his manager/trainer Juanito) Man, when I'm going to get that belt man?

Juanito: I want to get it before you go to that parade so you can have both of them.

QJ: Yeah, so I don't know.

PC: Oh, you still don't have it?

QJ: No, I still don't have a damn belt.

PC: When you fought Marvin Eastman, just to be honest, a lot of new fans didn't know who you were in the states. Now you are one of the faces of the UFC. Do you feel like people are taking notice of you now?

QJ: I don't know. I don't know what's going on with the fans, but that's my last concern. If it's meant for them to get to know me, they'll get to know me, but the fans knowing who I am and stuff like that really don't concern me. I'm just going on with my career and whooping ass. That's what I have to do and then they'll jump on the bandwagon if they see all that.

PC: Your wrestling looked to have improved leaps and bounds since your Pride days. Is that something you worked on specifically for the Henderson fight?

QJ: To be honest, I didn't work on wrestling that much for the Henderson fight. I felt like I should've worked on wrestling a little bit more and maybe I wouldn't have gotten taken down those two times. I worked more on standup because I was trying to knock him out.

PC: I saw where you did some training with Shane Mosley. How did he help you out?

QJ: Shane Mosley is great man. He helped me out a lot for this fight. He showed me different techniques and stuff with the punches. I'm going to keep going up there and picking at his brain and seeing what other stuff he could show me. He showed me how to turn my foot over and stuff with the punches and things like that, you know what I mean?

PC: Dan was gassing a little down the stretch and you were throwing some big shots at him. Did you think you would eventually catch him and stop him late?

QJ: Yeah! He seemed like he started to get tired in the 3rd round or something like that and I was getting stronger. I was still trying to put these knuckles on the side of his head, but he was pretty good at wrapping me up.

PC: I know you've wanted to fight Wanderlei and Shogun again. You now have both of them in the UFC. Is that 2 fights that you would like to be made soon?

QJ: I would love to fight Wanderlei and Shogun at the same time. Anybody that beat me, come on; let's see if you could do it again.

PC: Do you ever miss fighting in Japan?

QJ: I miss Japan in general, whether I'm fighting there or not. I just miss going to Japan.

PC: You and Anderson Silva seem to have made a smooth transition from Pride to the UFC, but why do you think these other fighters are having such a tough time?

QJ: I don't know. I have no idea. I wonder what it is. Anderson has been very successful. He came over and whooped everybody that he has fought. I don't know why these other guys are coming over and having such a hard time in the UFC. I have no idea.

PC: Chuck Liddell is coming off of two losses to yourself and Keith Jardine. If you were advising him, what would you tell him?

QJ: I think he should take a little time off and don't fight so soon. Take a couple of months off and get better at some stuff that he wants to work on and then see if he wants to retire. Fighters, you know, sometimes we're on top and sometimes we have to crawl back up to the top. That doesn't mean we need to retire.

QJ: I want to say thanks to all of my fans who do support me, know who I am and love watching me fight. I try and put on a good performance for you guys and keep watching out because my shoes are getting close to coming out now. Keep watching out and be ready to go get them. I'm wearing them right now and they'll be out for ya'll pretty soon, you know what I'm saying? Keep watching out!

[J-Dogg]

Rampage shoes? lol I can't wait!

[abombing]

That guy's funny as hell. I saw him at Total combat in San Diego recently. This pimp had a hot bitch on each arm, and was taking pictures with fans the whole event. Eddie Sanchz was there too, no one wanted a picture W/ him. People love a winner, especially one W/ personality.

[sphincter]

yeah, he took a pic with my wife when he showed for the K1 Dynamite Gracie/Sakuraba II fight in LA earlier this year...