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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
"I don't know [if we'd re-sign him]. We'll see how this thing plays out and see what happens... I don't know what to say about Rampage. One minute, you're cool with him, and the next minute ... Through this whole thing, all the talk, all the stuff that's happened, I have remained exactly the same to him like nothing was going on, right up until he left tonight.
If I was worried about any of that stuff, I wouldn't have put him on the biggest platform that we have, on Fox. We've treated him [well]. He made his money like he always makes his money. He had the opportunity tonight to win and do whatever he wanted to do. It's not like I threw him on some prelim in the middle of Brazil somewhere. I put him on the biggest platform to shine. He was treated tonight the way he's always been treated. We didn't treat him the way he's been treating us."
-Dana White discusses Rampage Jackson following the former Champion's final contracted fight on Saturday night, a loss to Glover Teixeira at UFC on Fox 6 (transcribed by MMAJunkie.com).
Penick's Analysis: I don't know how much interest the UFC had in trying to keep Jackson on the roster heading into Saturday night's event, but considering he lost his third straight fight and is clearly not among the top fighters in the light heavyweight division anymore, any lingering desire to make it work may have dissipated. And White's right, they easily could have stuck his last fight on an undercard somewhere just to get rid of him quietly. They didn't do that, they gave him a big platform, sat back as he aired his increasingly unsympathetic grievances, and went forward. I think Saturday was the last we see of Rampage in the UFC, and though I don't know where he'll go next, his time at the top is done for good.
[Dana White art by Travis Beaven (c) MMATorch.com]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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