Quinton Rampage Jackson is hopeful that he and longtime UFC rival, Rashad Evans, can settle their feud in the boxing ring soon, with Jackson claiming there is ‘unfinished business’ between the two former champions.
Former UFC light heavyweight champion, Quinton Rampage Jackson, was scheduled to make his full boxing debut on June 1 against Shannon Briggs, however, the bout was canceled.
The 45-year-old was, though, involved in a boxing fight of sorts last year when he and Bob Sapp teamed up to take on Jon Nutt and a man named Woody, in a ‘Siamese boxing fight’ on Fight Circus 6, in Thailand.
Quinton Jackson eyeing up a boxing fight against Rashad Evans
In June 2009, Jackson and Evans coached against each other on The Ultimate Fighter 10, marking the beginning of their rivalry.
Just three months later, Rampage announced he was walking away from the UFC because of a dispute with the promotion. Despite that, he came back at UFC 144 in 2010, to finally face ‘Suga’ Evans.
Rashad went on to win the fight despite being hurt in the opening round.
Although the two shared an intense rivalry during their UFC tenures, Jackson recently admitted that he and Evans are now friends and have buried their hatred for each other.
“It was good catching up with Rashad because he is actually fun, he’s actually a good guy,” Jackson told Demetrious Johnson in an interview.
Jackson and Evans starred in a movie together called ‘Boss Level’, where they played German twins. The movie aired exclusively on Hulu in 2021.
“I just didn’t like him back in the day. The director of A-Team Joe Carnahan did another movie called Boss Level and he had a bright idea to make Rashad and I German twins.
“We were on set and at first, it was kind of tough but after a while we became cool and we’ve been boys ever since but I feel like I still have that unfinished business with him,” Jackson stated.
Despite now being civil with each other, Jackson would like the chance to fight Evans once more and has suggested that a boxing fight would make the most sense, with Evans reportedly interested.
“He said that he’s down to fight me in a boxing match, I don’t think he wants no more MMA because he knows I was going to put my foot through his ass in MMA, he just got lucky and beat me so he thinks he can outbox me, so hopefully one day that will happen,” Rampage added.
Quinton Jackson slams the UFC’s ‘disrespectful’ pay structure
The 45-year-old fought his last fight in the UFC in 2013, losing to Glover Teixeira. Throughout his tenure, the outspoken light heavyweight had his issues with the promotion, and he has revealed the price he had to pay to get out of his UFC contract, to move to Bellator.
“It was weird, I can’t remember exactly what happened but when I left the UFC because they took my Reebok deal, but this was before the Reebok deal went into play, but I think I owed them one more fight on my contract but I had to buy myself out of my contract, I think it cost like $1.7m,” Jackson revealed.
The former UFC light heavyweight champion went on to criticize the promotion’s pay structure of show/win money, stating that fighters should get paid the same amount whether they win or lose.
“I can tell you this, Bellator paid me purse-wise they paid me more than the UFC paid me. Me when I do my contracts, I get paid the same money, I never did this to show I get this and if I win I get that, I never did those contracts.
“I think it’s disrespectful bro, I don’t care what level you are, you think about this, I think it’s disrespectful, we’re coming to fight, win or lose you should get paid the same,” Rampage claimed.