Quinton "Rampage" Jackson wants to be well-prepared when he fights Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, and taking a fight with the UFC light-heavyweight champion on short notice runs contrary to that plan.
Jackson today responded to Rua's revelation that "Rampage" turned down a title shot that subsequently was given to Jon "Bones" Jones at UFC 126. The title-fight slot opened when Rashad Evans recently went down with a knee injury.
"I don't care who the opponent is," Jackson said in an exclusive interview with MMAjunkie.com (
www.mmajunkie.com). "I'm not taking a fight on four weeks' notice."
The former UFC champion said he informed UFC president Dana White of his decision while attending this past weekend's pay-per-view event.
A UFC official confirmed that turn of events to MMAjunkie.com earlier today but declined to comment. Rua, though, told Tatame.com that he didn't know why Jackson declined.
"It's not enough time to get ready for a five-round fight," Jackson said. "Dana knows that. And 'Shogun,' he's a fighter, and he should know that. He shouldn't even go and say [expletive] like that with him being a fighter. He saw me at the fight this weekend. Everybody saw how big I am."
The former champ and star of the recent action blockbuster "The A-Team" recently returned to the gym and is still getting back into the groove. Jackson currently is scheduled to fight Thiago Silva (15-2 MMA, 6-2 UFC) at UFC 130, which takes place May 28 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. If he had taken the Rua fight, he'd have just six weeks to prepare. Right now, he has 12 weeks until UFC 130.
"I'm just doing maintenance training right now," Jackson said. "I just started back. I fought right before the holidays, and I went on vacation to see my family and took my kids to see their family in Japan.
"I've been living my life, so I gained a lot of weight. I'm a natural fighter. I don't do any drugs, and I don't know any high-performance drugs, so I have a natural body. My body gains weight when I don't train and I don't eat like I'm in camp."
Jackson (31-8 MMA, 6-2 UFC) said taking the fight with Rua (19-4 MMA, 3-2 UFC) at this point would force him to focus almost exclusively on losing weight. Although he has pined for a rematch with Rua since an April 2005 loss to the now-UFC champion, the circumstances aren't right.
"I'm 250 pounds, and I would have to lose 45 pounds in, what, three or four weeks?" he said. "The first time I fought 'Shogun,' I was injured going into that fight, and it's haunted me all the way up to now. I always believed the second time I fight 'Shogun' that I'm going to be close to 100 percent as possible.
"I don't want to have a rushed camp and have a last-minute fight to fight someone who's already beaten me. Even if they offered me Forrest (Griffin) or Rashad (Evans) in four weeks, I can't take that fight because I'm too big."
So for now, he plans to focus on Silva.
