Turning the Rampage

While Rampage approaches his fight with Bones Jones, I start to reflect on his career and what it has meant to MMA and UFC fans.  Several of Jackson’s fights flash before my eyes, much like a car or plane crash you’ve seen that can never quit exit your psyche.

In PRIDE Elimination in 2005, Shogun owned Jackson to the degree Bones  owned Shogun   in winning the LHW title.  Both fights were the kind of beat-down that can make even hard-core MMA fans flinch. Shogun knotted Jackson in the Thai clinch and used relentless knees and then soccer kicks to finish Jackson, who looked at the end much like Shogun  looked when he lost to Bones; physically and psychologically beaten.

Jackson is a much different fighter now: more lethal as a striker, harder to take down, and has better footwork. Whether he can get into his range and stay out of Bones’s remains to be seen. But if any fighter can do it, Jackson can.

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Jackson’s first pro fight was in April, 1999. He is 32-8, with 14 (T)KOs, 7 subs and 11 decisions.  His loss to Shogun in 2005 was his last via KO. He’s only lost twice in the UFC---to Griffin and Evans. Both losses were close, and many fans believe both could be easily avenged. It’s hard to imagine anyone finishing Jackson in this stage of his career, with his experience, but if anyone can do it, Bones can.

Jackson is one of MMA’s most recognizable fighters. His pear-shaped, close-shaven head, trade-marked neck-chain, Octagon stare-down and wolf howl have endeared him to fans  all over the world. His time with PRIDE in Japan made him more famous there than anywhere else, in spite of his stint as Mr. T.

As I write, Rampage’s fight images scud across my mind like clouds  across a steel-blue sky:  his submission-loss brawl with orange-shorted Sakuraba; his brutal slam KO of Ricardo Arona; his knee-to-the-head dropping of Kevin Randleman and  the subsequent confrontation with W Silva center ring; the 17 plus knees to the head Jackson took before The Axe Murderer left the American bloodied and hanging from the ropes; his one-punch KOs of both The Axe Murderer and The Ice Man.

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For me, what shines through all this, though,  is Jackson’s personality, and so it’s fitting he was cast as B.A. Baracus in The A Team, and why he did as good a job  as he did in the role. He says himself he is a changed man when he steps into the Octagon: Grasshopper to Locust. Outside---despite a few mishaps---Jackson is a teddy bear of a man, with a very unique wit about him. If Rashad Evans comes off as a totally unfunny dick no matter what he does, Rampage tugs at your heart strings, for the simple reason that there is vulnerability about the Tennessee fighter  who wears his heart on his sleeve, and something very human in his ability to Jekyll-Hyde when he steps across the Octagon’s threshold.

It’s too early to sum up the man’s career, even though he may be far closer to its end than its  beginning.  He has a lot more  to contribute, in or out of the Octagon. Once he’s retired the 4 ounce gloves, don’t expect his gums to stop flapping overtime. And that's a good thing.

By Renko Styranka
ProFighting-fans.com Senior MMA Staff Writer