For the Love of MMA '23 Part 2

Please first read Part 1 of this MMA-themed convention. 

Former UFC light-heavyweight champion Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson is the next stage guest. Loud, lairy and a self confessed ‘real asshole,’ Jackson, a former opponent of Chuck Liddell, also in attendance today, opens reminiscing those particular fights – as best as he can.

 

“I couldn’t have beaten Liddell. Chuck had just fought Wanderlei Silva and got knocked out. Styles make fights. To this day, I still remember knocking Wanderlei spark out.” He looks off into space for a moment. “Give me a sec, I’ve got brain fog. I can’t remember my own boxing coach’s name. I’ve been punched in the head too many times. What was the question?”   

Jackson’s Q+A meanders from training in England with (he remembers) Paul Kelly, to his Ultimate Fighter season, in which cameras go behind the scenes and when 2 fighters and their trainees are pitched against each other for 6 weeks.   

“I hated every second, hated the guys’ guts,” Jackson admits. He tells us of juggling a court case, training, the TV show, and losing his temper.   

Jackson then dipped into the movie business, as BA Barakas in the A-Team remake, picking that project over a fight. Dana White, he tells us, “was not happy. If you do nothing (in pro fighting) for 6 months, it’s hard to get back in. 

“I never met Mr. T. He wanted to play BA Barakas again. I’m one of his biggest fans. Mr T Gave me a Snickers bar, (As Mr T advertises on TV) and I ate it.   

“My next movie will be with Cowboy Cerrone and Chael Sonnen.”   

AQ: Who was the most annoying person you ever fought?   

RJ: Jon Jones was an annoying fight, but personality, Chael Sonnen. He’s annoying as fuck! (US-Canadian sports journo) Ariel Helwani got me sued! He cost me a lot of money. You have to use the word ‘allegedly.’ He asked me, ‘Are you in love?’ I said, ‘no.’ It cost me a girlfriend AND I got sued! (MMA fighter) Bob Sapp is rich as fuck, but he’s the cheapest person you’ll ever meet. We went to Thailand to train with him. Sapp is so funny.   

AQ: If WWE gave you some training, would you be open to it?   

RJ: No, I’m heterosexual. Wait, what? If they trained, maybe, but I’m old (44).   

AQ: What were the best moments of (early MMA promotion) Pride?   

RJ: They had after parties before the fights had finished. I met this groupie, got her number. I turned around and (entourage member) Gary was playing with her titties. I didn’t know she was a pornstar!   

Before the next stage guest appears, I take a browse around the building to see what’s happening. The seminars have begun. A section of Bowlers has been set aside for training seminars, and Matt Hughes is the first guest to teach on the mats, focussing on takedowns. 

 

Chuck Liddell is next to take to the mats, teaching striking for MMA.  

 

Finally UFC’s Kenny Florian taught some submissions.

 

I wish I’d been faster and booked onto these, as training with a fighter is a rare opportunity. 

Brazilian former Middleweight champ Anderson Silva is the last stage guest of the day. Silva holds the record for longest UFC title reign at 2457 days.

 

JN: when you dropped Vitor Belfort (with a front kick to the head) what did you think?   

AS: I used boxing, then put my leg high. Bam. It worked. When you have a discipline, and train, it works. When you do something, do it with heart. 

His stage talk meanders between hyping a fight with shit-talk (“When you talk a lot, about wife or daughter, I think, okay, I’m gonna go kill this guy”) to injuries (“My doctor told me not to fight. Coach said, please put your hands up. I said, ‘I can’t, I’m in too much pain.’ The judges saved my life against Chael Sonnen”). (Former Light Heavyweight champ, now Heavyweight Champ) Jon Jones Silva describes as “my bro! I respect him a lot. It’s a good fight for fans to think about, but it won’t happen.” 

Questions are opened to the audience, and a fan first asks about UFC 162, back in July ‘13. On the night, Silva lost his middleweight belt that he’d held since 2006. 

AS: I respect (opponent) Chris Weidman a lot. I lost focus, and got knocked out. It’s a tough game. When I win it’s good, when I lose it’s okay. In personal life it’s the same. Sometimes you lose, sometimes you win. Nobody can stop you except you. When I lost my win streak, it’s like something happens to you in one second. It happened to me. 

The next audience question brings up his Matrix-like fight style- lots of leaning, arms low, a fluid, kinetic display. 

“I grew up watching Bruce Lee,” says Silva. “I tell friends ‘I’m Bruce Lee!’ My friends were like, ‘Bruce Lee is Asian.’ I’m like, ‘I’m black Bruce Lee. It’s the same.’ I’d say, I’m Spiderman!’ My friends would say, 'come on bro, Spiderman’s not black!’” (Maybe not, although in a recent incarnation Spiderman was half Puerto Rican, and Silva is similarly Latino.) 

The final audience question of this Q+A, and of the day: What does it feel like being the baddest man in the room? AS: I’m not the baddest man in the room! (Silva points to the signing tables at the far end, manned by this weekend’s guests.) There’s a room full of fighters!

In the middle of the day: photoshoot with current welterweight champion, UK's Leon Edwards.

 

Big respect for Monopoly Events and Bowlers for putting For the Love of MMA together. Let's do it again next year!