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Mired in a very public war of words with his boss, UFC president Dana White, former UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson did an about face on his retirement talk early Friday morning.
In a blog post on his official Web site, Jackson said he now plans to return to the Ultimate Fighting Championship and finish his contract.
“I wanted to let my fans know that I'm going to come back to the UFC & finish my contract. Not because the haters are talking (expletive) about me being scared of Rashad or Titties or anybody else. I'm coming back for my fans & to shut Rashad's mouth up & shut Dana's mouth up. Then after that I'm going back to doing movies & I might do a boxing match once a year just to stay in shape.”
The rift started a few months ago when Jackson backed out of a headline bout against Rashad Evans. The fight was set for UFC 107 in Jackson’s hometown of Memphis, Tenn., following several months of build-up from he and Evans serving as coaches on The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights.
Jackson backed out of the fight to pursue a role as B.A. Baracus in the feature movie remake of “The A-Team.”
"He wants to do this thing, and he's like, 'listen, man, this is really important to me... there's some sentimental value here for me, me and my Dad grew up watching The A-Team together and we loved it,'” White told reporters at a pre-fight press conference for UFC 102. "Well, guess what, brother? I said, 'guess what Rashad Evans is thinking about right now. He's thinking about beating your (expletive) ass. He's not sitting around thinking about him and his mom used to watch the (expletive) 'Love Boat' together, and he wants to get the role of 'Isaac the Bartender'...you know what I mean? Get a (expletive) grip, dude.”
Jackson also took a lot of heat for his portrayal on The Ultimate Fighter, receiving heavy criticism for his coaching and explosive arguments with Evans.
He addressed those critiques in his recent blog post as well.
“I've noticed that the UFC & TUF have some fans brainwashed or something. They still haven't realized yet that the TV show is just a TV show. I did my job by entertaining people and if you ever paid any attention to me, that's what I'm known for doing.”
Jackson gave no indication as to when fans might expect him to return to the Octagon. A source close to Jackson told MMAWeekly.com that the fighter was still finishing up filming on The A-Team movie, but was sure that Jackson was prepared to make his return once his acting obligations were met.
http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/templates/dailynews.asp?articleid=10154&zoneid=13
