"Collateral damage" from Jackson's "A-Team" role includes lack of counter-programming options
DALLAS – UFC light heavyweight superstar Quinton "Rampage" Jackson's decision to forego a December bout with Rashad Evans has resulted in a series of headaches for UFC brass.
Rescheduling main events and shuffling fight locations may seem troubling enough, but today White admitted he was forced to scrap plans for a potential third event in November based on Jackson's decision to take a role as B.A. Baracus in a feature film version of "The A-Team."
"Thanks to [expletive] B.A. Baracus, I couldn't [expletive] pull it off," White said. "B.A. [expletive] me. The collateral damage that was done by him doing this thing was unbelievable."
That revelation comes at a particularly interesting time when paired with today's Strikeforce announcement that the organization will host an event on CBS on Nov. 7 – the rumored date of the now-scrapped UFC event – that will feature top heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko.
But White said the loss of a counter-programming option is but one of the effects of Jackson's Hollywood aspirations.
With Jackson withdrawing from a planned December bout with opposing "The Ultimate Fighter 10: Heavyweights" coach Evans – a bout that was scheduled to take place in "Rampage's" hometown of Memphis, Tenn. – White was forced to schedule a B.J. Penn vs. Diego Sanchez bout in the main event of the as-yet-unannounced UFC 107 event.
White said that switch forced a domino effect for the organization's remaining 2009 events.
"You have no idea how much collateral damage was done by Jackson pulling out of this thing," White told MMAjunkie.com (
http://www.mmajunkie.com). "It literally screwed up the rest of our year. We've got B.J. Penn fighting in Memphis, you know what I mean?"
White said he thought he had talked "Rampage" out of doing the movie, but the situation quickly took a turn for the worse.
"What happens is, Jackson calls up and says he's doing this movie. I said, 'No, you're not. You're going to fight Rashad in December. You do whatever you want to do after this fight. You want to retire and become an actor? You want to join the monastery? I don't care what you do after this fight, but 'Rampage,' you're going to fight this fight.'
"He said, 'OK.' Then he had his manager fly in from England and met me at the hangar before I was leaving to go out of town to tell me that he wasn't going to (fight Evans). Rampage and I haven't talked since."
While many MMA observers have wondered aloud how White could allow Jackson to walk away from the fight, the UFC exec said his hands were tied.
"You can't make anybody fight," White said. "I can't force anybody to fight. You don't want to fight, then you're not going to fight. And you don't want a guy going into it whose head isn't in to fighting, anyway.
"If you'd rather be on the set of 'The A-Team,' then you definitely don't belong in the octagon."
White admits Jackson's decision has caused a riff between the two.
"I feel like he [expletive] me," White said. "I'm not even talking to 'Rampage.' I'm really, really upset with 'Rampage.'"
One more victim of the collateral damage was original opponent Evans. White said he's simply not sure what the next move for "Sugar" will be.
"Evans is really messed up over this whole thing," White said. "He wants to fight 'Rampage.'
"When you get your mind set that this is who you're going to fight – he's bummed out about it. I think he's going to need a little recovery time before we decide if he's fighting 'Rampage' or somebody else."
Dang, Dana is really pi$$ed about this.