UFC legend Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson shared a wild story about the lead-up to one of his legendary fights in PRIDE.
Former UFC light heavyweight champion Rampage Jackson treated fans to some of the most memorable wars during his legendary career. Before he signed with the UFC, Jackson had already become a household name in combat sports through PRIDE, defeating the likes of Kevin Randleman and Chuck Liddell before he ever appeared in the Octagon.
Jackson was thrown to the wolves for his PRIDE debut as he squared off with Japanese superstar Kazushi Sakuraba at PRIDE 15 in July 2001. The fight came together after Jackson won 10 of his first 11 professional fights, and at a time when Sakuraba was at the top of Mixed Martial Arts after dismantling three members of the Gracie dynasty.
Jackson had to deal with the biggest spotlight of his career at that point ahead of his fight with Sakuraba. But Jackson’s biggest mountain to climb came in the hours before facing off with the Japanese juggernaut.
Rampage Jackson: PRIDE tried to ‘poison me’ ahead of Kazushi Sakuraba fight
In a recent appearance on Coach Tim Welch’s Red Hawk Recap podcast, Jackson shared a wild story about the toughest weight cut of his MMA career.
“My worst cut was when I had to fight Sakuraba. There were no weight classes, but they made me lose 27 pounds and gave me three hours to do it,” Jackson said.
“They wanted me to do it the day of the fight, but you can’t do that. They wanted me to be like, really weak. I’ll say this right now – f— PRIDE FC because of the way they treated me. I know people may not believe me, but I really do think they poisoned me or something. If you understand what Sakuraba was to PRIDE back then…I got the stuff that they give you [for weight cuts], and I had an upset stomach and then after the fight with Sakuraba, as soon as the fight was over in the locker room, I took a mean s— and then I felt fine. These people who were my ‘handlers’ that my manager had to deal with, they were evil…they were like the Hunter Campbells of PRIDE, chemists, that’s what their profession was.
“They hated my guts,” Jackson continued. “When I fought Sakuraba, I was jet lagged, and more worried about s—— myself instead of getting armbarred. It was a miracle that I even made it to that fight, because I had to pretend that I was totally dehydrated. I lost 27 pounds, and then I didn’t want to cut the weight anymore. To lose that much weight in three hours, could you imagine? I told them to carry me to the scale, that’s when I first started my acting career [LAUGHS].”
Jackson went on to lose to Sakuraba by submission in what was the second defeat of his career to that point. PRIDE was then acquired and deactivated by Zuffa, Dana White, and the Fertitta brothers in 2007.
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