Rampage - Live from the Mandalay Bay
By Michael DiSanto

As I entered the arena for Friday night's epic battle between Tito
Ortiz and Randy Couture, I had a chance to talk briefly with Quinton
'Rampage' Jackson about the Ortiz-Couture fight, the Pride FC Grand Prix
and more. Let's jump right into it.

InsideFighting: Rampage, how are you man! Let's get your thoughts on a
few things before Tito goes to war with Randy tonight.

Rampage: [Pointing to his mouth, Rampage starts to do what appears to be
sign language.]

IF: Rampage, is there something wrong with your voice?

Rampage: [Looking frustrated, he again starts to do what appears to be
sign language.]

IF: [Turning to my photographer, Scott Jordan] Man, can you understand
what this dude is trying to say?

Rampage: I'm just playing, dawg! Yeah, let's do this interview, I'm
ready.

IF: You were part of Tito Ortiz's training camp, right?

Rampage: Something like that there.

IF: How did it go?

Rampage: It went pretty good. It was good. It was cool. We were up
in the mountains, training and putting it down.

IF: How do you think his chances are tonight against Randy Couture?

Rampage: I think his chances are pretty good. I think he's got like a
200,000% chance of winning.

IF: What advice do you have for Tito against Randy?

Rampage: Oh, my strategy? This would be my strategy like this here.
I'd tell him to keep his hands up, right. Keep your cover up and
counter off your cover waiting for him to come in. Couture, he's got
hands, you saw that in his fight with Chuck Liddell, right? Now, I'd
tell Tito to let him come in and when he tries that little shot he does,
and then knee him like "WHAM, WHAM, WHAM!" Just knee his ass. Keep
kneeing that ass! [Rampage gets hyped and is demonstrating Muay Thai
knees]. Then when he falls down do those famous Tito elbows.

IF: So let's move on to your fight with Chuck Liddell in November, how
are you feeling? Are you ready?

Rampage: I'm fighting Chuck Liddell?

IF: [Laughing.] Yeah, you didn't know that [obviously joking with
Rampage].

Rampage: I forgot that I was fighting him.

IF: So you're going to take care of your boy's business before he gets
a chance to.

Rampage: It's just a job. You know, I just go out there and do my job.
Tito's got his job to do and I've got my job to do. That's how we see
it. Are you doing your job [he asks me]? Are you doing your job [he
asks Scott]?

IF: I'm doing my job, but this fool isn't doing a damn thing right now.
Take some pictures man, do something useful [we all laugh].

Rampage: Awe man, that's rough. He ain't doing his job? [Everyone
laughs.]

IF: Wanderlei Silva. If you get past Liddell, you get Silva in the
finals. You've said that you don't care about fighting him in the Grand
Prix, you just want to fight for his belt. Talk to me.

Rampage: Yeah man, I'm going to have to fight his ass twice, if I get
past Chuck Liddell. But if "if" was a fifth, we'd all be drunk.
[Everyone laughs.]

IF: Ok, you're from Memphis, right? I've got to ask you something. I
went to college in Nashville, so I know a little something about the
club scene in Tennessee. What's it like for you? Do people recognize
you as an ultimate fighter when you're out?


Rampage: No. Don't nobody know who I am man. Nobody recognizes me,
man.

IF: Do people ever mess with you in the club?

Rampage: Oh man. I ain't been to Memphis in a while, but I got in a
fight at the Shark Club in Orange County not too long ago right before I
fought Bustamante. It was on my birthday, June 20th. So some dude hit
me man.

IF: He just hit you?

Rampage: He hit me because he was trying to holla at one of my play
sisters, you know, my best friend's sister. It was my birthday, so she
was like 'no, you've got to ask my brother because it's his birthday.'
He looked at me and saw that I was black and she was Asian, so he was
like 'that ain't your damn brother. Man, f**k your brother." You know
what I'm sayin'? He got in my face talkin' s**t. So I was like 'man,
you don't even know me man." [Colin Oyama interrupts and tells Rampage
that they need to go.] Man, I gotta cut this interview short because my
coach said I gotta go. Sorry about the interview guys. Anyways, so I
put some oooie knots on that motherf*****'s head. Now he doesn't look
the same anymore. He looks like an 80 year old now 'cause I f****d him
up. So don't f**k with Rampage when he's out at the clubs cause you'll
get some knots [Rampage laughs jokingly.]

IF: Thanks Rampage. Good luck against Chuck and stay healthy dawg!

Rampage: Later fellas.

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