Despite a successful return to Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) earlier this year, following his not-so-abrupt departure from Bellator MMA, Quinton Jackson's future with the Zuffa-owned fight promotion is still a bit foggy.
That's because the boys over at Bellator are still trying to keep "Rampage" from fighting inside the Octagon.
Yes, again.
As Jackson revealed on The MMA Hour, if these court battles drag on and eventually don't turn out in his favor, he'll refuse to fight for the Viacom-owned organization and will instead pack up his things and retire for good.
"People keep asking me, when you fighting next? And most people don't know that I'm tied up in a damn court battle with Viacom and Bellator and I don't know when I'm going to fight next. People need to realize that I am not a manager, I am a fighter. My manager is very good at what he does and Viacom breached the contract. They had 45 days to fix the breach and we gave them 90-something days and they didn't fix the breach. So, in my contract, I was allowed to terminate my contract if Viacom didn't fix the breach. They promised movies, pro wrestling, reality shows and everything to boost their pay-per-views. Everybody saw what happened to Bjorn Rebney, he got canned. Scott Coker came in and the company was turned upside down and my contract got shitted on. That is all out there, that is common sense. For some reason, Viacom didn't want to fix things. So my manager terminated (the contract) and he took everything to UFC and UFC said, 'Yup, he is legal to sign.' Viacom didn't agree with the termination. I don't know if my manager missed one step going to the courts or whatnot, so they try to put a hold on my fight and I went to the courts and everything and I got it overturned and I fought and I did that for the fans because they wanted to see me fight. Now I'm tied up going to court and stuff like that, and I feel they are just trying to tie me up so I don't fight. But you know, at the end of the day, and I've been thinking about this a long time, I've won four fights in a row, I've done a lot in the sport, I've been fighting for 15 years and I love this sport, so I'm thinking, Bellator can't make me fight for them. And I'm thinking I might as well go ahead and retire. Just retire, I got my clone that is going to fight, he's 15 years old and going through his wrestling background. When he turns 18, I'll put him in amateurs, send him to Japan, and put him through the whole thing so you guys will have another 'Rampage' coming in a couple of years. So if Bellator tries to keep holding me up, I'll just retire and do movies and television shows. It's just too much stress for one person to deal with. All I try to do is put on exciting fights. Some people try to screw you over and some try to help you out. UFC has been good with all this and been helping me out, but there is only so much one human being can take. So if this court stuff don't go well, I might as well retire. I ain't going to let someone to force me to fight for them. I've done a lot in this sport, so the easiest thing to do is retire and walk away."
Bummer.
A rematch between Jackson and longtime rival, Mauricio Rua, looked to be on the horizon, but now we know why the two old PRIDE FC stablemates haven't put pen to paper and fists to face.
We may have seen the last of "Rampage" inside the Octagon, unless the UFC's high-priced attorney's can get the job done inside the courtroom.