Rampage Jackson Will Fight Shogun Rua and then Leave the UFC Forever

Yup, that’s Rampage losing his mind again. He first went crazy back in the summer of 2008 he got in some trouble with the law when he tried to get away from the cops in a truck with his own picture on it and clipped some cars before being arrested. The UFC stood with him, but since then he’s cultivated his long history of harassing reporters. He retired in 2009 to film The A-Team movie. And maybe his worst offense in the eyes of MMA fans – he’s been boring in the cage.

You have to go back to UFC 92 when he knocked out Wanderlei Silva to find the last known Rampage Jackson highlight. That was December of 2008. Since then, Rampage has gone 3-3 with all three wins coming by decision. One of those wins was a split decision victory over Lyoto Machida. While that was probably his most impressive victory of the last three years, it was also the most controversial.

To Rampage’s credit, he’s been durable, taking Rashad Evans and Ryan Bader the distance. The only person who stopped him was UFC lightheavyweight champion Jon Jones. That’s forgivable. One thing has been constant – Rampage has been kind of boring. So when people hear about Rampage’s latest threats to leave the UFC, what can they do besides shrug? If he beats Rua, he’ll be back because there’s no one out there that can pay him as well (as consistently) as the UFC. If he loses… who knows. Maybe it will be the last we see of Rampage.

Here’s Ariel Helwani reporting the news on UFC Tonight.