Interview with Quinton "Rampage" Jackson

Interview with current UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson
By David Mayeda
Author of Fighting for Acceptance: Mixed Martial Artists and Violence in American Society
Conducted September 24, 2006, shortly before Jackson entered the UFC

David Mayeda (DM): How long have you been competing as a mixed martial artist?

Quinton Jackson (QJ): About six years.

DM: How’d you get into it?

QJ: I was wrestling, and one of my friends who I used to wrestle against started doing mixed martial arts. And he invited me to come and fight. So he took me to some fights, and I fell in love with it.

DM: Why don’t you talk to me about your wrestling background.

QJ: I started wrestling when I was seventeen, me I was kind of late. I wrestled two seasons in high school. The first year I was camera man. I wasn’t that good. I wrestled ten matches, but then the second year, I went undefeated through the season to the regional finals, and I placed sixth in state (Tennessee).

DM: Talk about growing up in Tennessee. Is that where you grew up?

QJ: Memphis, yeah… My parents got divorced when I was about ten, and my Mom didn’t really like me, so she was always putting me out of the house, and stuff like that… (It was like) any broken, dysfunctional family. I was raised by the streets, you know. My Mom was home, but she didn’t give a damn, you know.

DM: And when you wrestled in high school, did you do any sports besides that?

QJ: I played football after I wrestled (but) I was always failing, so I could never qualify for sports. I was a natural athlete. If I had been able to play sports that probably would have been good. But I never could play basketball, my body wasn’t made for it… Wrestlin’ and football, you know I took to it real good… I went to a junior college to wrestle.

DM: Did you get in fights as a kid?

QJ: Yeah, I fought a lot… basically, I hung around adults cause I didn’t like kids my age, so a lot of times I was influenced to fight.

DM: And did you win back then?

QJ: Yeah, I won most of my fights.

DM: Do you think that propelled you into wrestling and then into mixed martial arts?

QJ: Well I always used to want to be a pro wrestler. So that’s what got me into it.

DM: Okay, who was your favorite?

QJ: The Ultimate Warrior, and Hulk Hogan.

DM: What were your first impressions (in MMA) your first year?

QJ: That was a while ago. I don’t even remember what I was thinking. To be honest with you, I had such a terrible family life, I was just happy to be doing anything to get me out of my house and move out to California, get me away from my family. So I was stoked to be out in California on my own, just doin’ something I love. Cause I didn’t think I’d be able to be making the money I’m makin’. I didn’t think nuthin’ about being as popular as I am now. It’s still like all a dream to me.

DM: Alright, what’s your biggest strength as a fighter?

QJ: My strength is my biggest strength.

DM: Your physical strength?

QJ: Yeah.

DM: And what are your long-term goals?

QJ: My long-term goal is I want to be remembered as the most exciting fighter in MMA, in the world. The best fighter and the most exciting fighter is like my top-notch goal. But the main focus is to be the most exciting fighter.

DM: Okay, what kind of rules do you like?

QJ: I like PRIDE rules.

DM: How’d you like living in Japan, or did you live in Japan?

QJ: I never did live in Japan. I love Japan. Japan is like the future compared to America, it’s like the opposite of America, the culture and everything is the exact opposite of America. I wouldn’t mind living there. I wish I could.

DM: How has your involvement in mixed martial arts influenced your perspective on street fighting?

QJ: I don’t street fight because I’m a professional. I only fight for money, you know what I’m sayin’. If you do something for money, why would you go back and do it for free? I don’t know about prostitutes, but they get paid for sex, you know what I’m sayin’. How many times they gonna go give it away for free?

DM: That’s an interesting comparison. Do you think the increasing popularity of mixed martial arts will affect violence in the street? It’s become really popular, kids might see it on television and might want to try stuff at home or on the street.

QJ: Yeah, they might want to try some stuff, but if they ain’t trained in it and stuff, they probably won’t be able to pull it off in a fight anyway. That stuff takes time to train and stuff like that. But if they go to a gym, and they want to learn, and the gym should teach them discipline. Just like the rappers. You hear all these rappers rappin’, and do the songs make the kids wanna go and shoot people? You know what I’m sayin’, cause they hear it in the rap song? Or do they do that type of stuff anyways? Some of them probably do that stuff already in the first place. So I don’t know if it would really have a negative impact on kids cause pro wrestling, you got some kids that were doing the damn pro wrestling in their backyards, hurting each other and doing stuff like that. But those types of kids, it’s all about their parents. You know what I’m sayin’, will their parents talk to them? Will their parents let them build a ring in their backyard where they can kill their friends? Or what kind of parents are they gonna have? It don’t lie on us. It lies on the parenting.

DM: You bring up an interesting point about responsibility. Do you think the MMA community should have a responsibility in educating young people or adolescents about safety?

QJ: Yeah, like I said, there’s nothing wrong with it. They should tell them, don’t try this at home. And if you wanna learn what we do, go to a gym. But the main focus should be on the parents. I’m a parent, so to be honest, I watch other parents and how they react to their kids… You’re not really supposed to spank your kids cause you can get in trouble for spanking your kids. Now that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. Now you got kids that don’t obey their parents cause their parents are too scared to spank them out of fear for going to jail, losing their kids, it costing a lot of money… If the parents weren’t afraid of their kids, they could say, “You can watch the fighting, but don’t go doing it yourself.” But the kids don’t respect their parents. You gotta be focused on the parents, you know what I’m sayin’. And maybe it’s something young kids shouldn’t watch it at a certain age. Maybe they shouldn’t even be allowed to watch it.

DM: Alright, what kind of injuries have you had?

QJ: Just broken hands, and bruised muscles in the ribs, and a broken nose. Nothing serious. This sport is the safest fighting sport there is. It’s safer than boxing, safer than kickboxing. It looks worse, but it’s a hundred times safer than boxing or kickboxing.

DM: Okay, why?

QJ: First of all, you don’t get too much head trauma. On average, seven boxers die a year. In our sport, we haven’t had any deaths [true, at the time of interview for sanctioned MMA events]. In boxing, you watch a boxer, you see him get dropped, they fall down, they get an 8-count. And then they continue to fight. In my sport, if you get dropped clean like that, the fight is over… We can give up if we’re too tired, you know what I’m sayin’. If something’s hurt, we can give up. In boxing, you’re not allowed to give up like that. That’s looked down upon. In my sport there’s more to it than just trying to knock somebody out, you know, you can try to get the referee to stop the fight by just getting (your opponent) to not answer anything, and submitting him, and stuff like that. Football (is) way more dangerous. Rugby, you ain’t got no damn helmets on, or pads. My sport is probably safer than soccer.

DM: Have you ever felt like quitting?

QJ: Nah, not yet.

DM: What keeps you going?

QJ: My paycheck. I got my kids to feed.

DM: Okay, define for me your spirituality.

QJ: Well, a lot of people don’t really understand but Christianity really is not a religion. It’s just faith, and one of God’s promises.

DM: Does that impact your profession for you?

QJ: Impact, no. I really don’t see how it would. Before I found my faith, I was a regular fighter. You know, I would be at a club, partying too much before a fight, but since I’ve found faith, it’s helped me out. It’s a lot of things, but it don’t really impact me that much. It’s my job, you know cause fightin’ is my job, and it impacts my whole life, I guess (pause). Yeah, it helped me a lot, but I never even think about it in that sense.

DM: What qualities does it take to become an elite mixed martial artist?

QJ: I think it takes a lot of discipline and sacrifice. It takes someone who’s gonna dedicate themselves and be extra good at every aspect of the game. All the martial arts that you need to know, and have the most excellent cardio, and be aggressive. That’s what it takes.

DM: Have you ever dealt with fear, or how do you deal with anxiety or excitement, or is that even an issue?

QJ: Well, it’s not really a big issue. The only thing I ever really feel is nervousness. And then a couple times before my fights I wasn’t nervous at all, and I lost those two fights. So now, I try to just let it flow. I don’t hate the nervousness feeling because those two fights, I feel like I could’a won had I had a normal feeling of being nervous. It’s kind of weird when you go into it and you’re not nervous.

DM: How do you feel about mixed martial arts becoming really mainstreamed in the last year and a half?

QJ: A lot of people call us barbaric and all that type of stuff. But I don’t know, if people just use their common sense and read the history books, history repeats itself. Like in the day they had gladiators. They fought in coliseums, and it’s comin’ back. That’s what we are, we’re the modern day gladiators. But we’re not killin’ each other, so what’s the big deal?

DM: When you first got started, how’d you survive?

QJ: With the will of God man, the will of God. The same friend who introduced me to fightin’ came out to California first, and he got a good job. And he hooked me up… But the thing is, if God sets something up for you, you can’t go wrong. And when I was saved, that’s what He said, that’s what He planned for me to do. Everything was His plan, so by the grace of God everything worked out. So I know He got me on a journey, I’m just tryin’ to walk that path and see what He got for me cause a lot of my friends didn’t make it, didn’t even make it to their seventeenth, eighteenth birthday. So I’m just goin’ for the ride tryin’ to be the best I could be, you know, tryin’ to be human.

David Mayeda, Ph.D is author of Fighting for Acceptance: Mixed Martial Artists and Violence in American Society, the first politically-based book supporting the sport of mixed martial arts. It can only be purchased online through Barnes and Noble.com or Amazon.com.