Former UFC light heavyweight champion, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson has today labelled bitter rival, Rashad Evans a ‘coward’, predicting he won’t back up what he said months ago about standing toe-to-toe with the man from Memphis on Saturday night and will instead look to take the fight to the ground.
Speaking via ESPN.co.uk recently, Jackson said:
“I don’t hate anybody. I might not like someone, but I’m a child of God. I just really don’t like this guy, It’s a given that he will try to wrestle with me. I expect him to come out and try to do something stupid like kick my leg, like Forrest did. Or get me to come towards him so he can take me down.”
“I don’t think he will fight me like a man, toe-to-toe, like he says he’s gonna do. Why should he? He’s a coward. In every one of his fights, he fights like a coward. I don’t expect him to turn into a man for this fight. He’s a coward.”
“He fought a guy with no wrestling in Thiago Silva, and as soon as the guy touched him his legs went all like rubber. He fought Thiago Silva like a coward. I hit harder than Thiago Silva.”
“If he thinks I’m one dimensional, he’s got another thing coming. People don’t realise it. I do what I want to do in a fight. If I want to box somebody, I’ll do it. Back in the day I was slamming everybody, and I was having a lot of fun doing it. Now I wanna knock people out. Just let it be known that I want to destroy him, I want to punish him.”
One final episode of UFC Primetime is set to air this week detailing the two fighters journeys up until this point. Then fans will have to buckle up as they come face-to-face two days running at the pre-fight press conference and weigh-in’s in Las Vegas, Nevada.