Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Light Heavyweight Champion, Quinton Jackson, recently revealed how the end of his relationship with promotion president Dana White began, starting with his decision to postpone his fight against Rashad Evans in favor of filming "The A-Team" movie.
But, according to "Rampage," he was feeling animosity from the UFC family long before that.
In his conversation with Bleacher Report, Jackson says the "awkward" feelings first began way back in 2007, immediately after knocking out the promotion's poster boy and longtime 205-pound kingpin, Chuck Liddell.
His words:
"Dana White really wanted me because I was the last guy Chuck (Liddell) wanted to get his revenge on. Everybody was really nice to me, I'm telling you when I beat up Marvin Eastman, everybody, people behind the scenes at the UFC they're really like a big family. Chuck was part of the family. They was all really nice to me, like a hog going to the slaughter, and then after I beat Chuck, right away, like 90 percent of them hated my guts. They didn't talk to me no more, they didn't smile at me when I came back there, it made me feel awkward."
His first round knockout win over "The Iceman" at UFC 71 was Jackson's sophomore effort inside the Octagon and his second win over Chuck; defeating him four years prior at Pride Final Conflict 2003.
And while Jackson refuses to call anyone in the UFC/ZUFFA brass a racist, he did say the years of dealing with hatred from outsiders based on his skin color has given him the skills to realize when someone doesn't like him.
He explains:
"You can tell when people don't like you. Especially being a black man born and raised in the South in America, you can tell when people don't like you. It's just a skill that you get. I'm not saying people's racist or stuff or not, I'm just telling you when you deal with that, you can tell when people don't like you."
"Rampage" cut all ties with UFC earlier this year after his unanimous decision loss to Glover Teixeira at UFC on FOX 6.
The hard-hitting brawler later signed with Bellator MMA after not only getting an offer to fight inside the cage, but a chance to dabble in professional wrestling, something he says has been on his to-do list since he was a kid.
In addition, the Viacom-owned company will also allow him to act in feature films, as well as help him make his screenwriting aspirations become a reality.
It seems like all is good between Jackson and the Bellator family. Or, at least until he knocks out one of their leading men.