Quinton "Rampage" Jackson on Training and Self-Defense
Rampage Returns: Quinton Jackson Reveals His Training and Self-Defense StrategiesBy Lito Angeles and Edward Pollard | Photos by Rick Hustead |
You suffered two devastating losses against Wanderlei Silva. How did you get over them? I looked up to Chuck Liddell after he lost to me in Japan. He came back to the UFC and did his thing and became a champion, and he kept the title for a while. I thought, If Chuck can do it, I can do it, too. Losing a fight is like losing a race. If you’re a race-car driver, just because you lost a race doesn’t make you a bad driver. I wasn’t a bad fighter. I’m not going to make excuses, but I know that if I’m at my best, if I have the right tools and if I’m 100 percent or close to 100 percent, I can be the best fighter in the world. I have proved it, and I’m going to keep on proving it. Did you use any special technique like visualization or positive thinking? There was nothing because I know why I lost. Some people lose and don’t know why, then they have problems and don’t correct them. I correct the problems I have. Is that why you changed your training? That’s why I changed my trainers and my training partners. If I’m fighting the best people in the world, I need to have the best sparring partners around. I always had good people to roll jiu-jitsu with and wrestle with, but that’s really not my game. I’ll wrestle when I have to, but you’ll never see me try to submit somebody. You’re renowned for your slams and strikes. Does your use of those skills come naturally? When I started wrestling at 17, slamming was just something I knew how to do. I would just pick you up and slam you. I wasn’t a technical wrestler. I wrestled one full season in high school, then went to college and wrestled in two or three matches. It’s been said that wrestling is the best base art and that all the other arts are easier to learn. If you were to pick one art as a foundation, would it be wrestling? I would pick wrestling because it’s the best form of mixed martial arts. Most champions have been wrestlers or understand wrestling. You have to have that basic knowledge to be successful. Guys who have no knowledge of wrestling can do well, but the ones with a basic knowledge of wrestling do the best. Is it easier to learn the other components of the fight game? It was easier for me to learn kickboxing. It wasn’t easier for me to learn jiu-jitsu, though. In jiu-jitsu, you have to drill over and over, and I hate drilling. Do you prefer sparring? I love sparring. If something is boring to me, I just can’t [do it]. I find a lot of things boring. I have to be entertained; things have to be exciting for me. When you spar, do you go hard all the time? No. Some people have egos and some don’t. I don’t have an ego. I get tapped out in my gym a lot. I get taken down. But I don’t get mad. When somebody spars with me and says, “Let’s go easy, let’s go light,” I go light until they pick it up. Then it turns into a hard thing. Should a person who’s training for self-defense go hard in training? It’s good to go light most of the time so you can get your technique down. But with muay Thai, sometimes you can’t go too slow or too light because the guy will see your kick coming and check it. You have to find that fine line between the right speed and the right power so your partner doesn’t get upset and turn it into a fight. A sparring match can turn into a fight really quick—in about two seconds. Do you also think that training light is the best way to prepare for a fight? No. You go light sometimes, and some days you go hard with your headgear and mouthpiece. It’s as simple as that. In muay Thai, you always go hard on the pads. I don’t see why you would ever go light on the pads. If you’re out of shape, you go for as long as you can on the pads—until you gas out. But if you’re in shape, you go as hard as you can go on the pads every time. How important is weight training? Everybody’s different. Personally, I don’t lift weights because I don’t have time. I’m naturally strong, so I don’t need it. I do push-ups and sit-ups, and that’s about it. I’ve always been this way. I was always stronger than most kids my age. God just gave me a certain strength, and I can only use it at certain times. It’s the weirdest thing. I remember fights when I would pick people up and slam them, but I couldn’t do it in training. In fights, it just comes out.
What was it like when you were asked to be a coach on The Ultimate Fighter? Well, I’ve never done much coaching. I just scream at my friends and tell them what to do, but they never listen. (smiling) Everybody reacts differently. Some people react if you scream at them: “Hey, come on, dude!” But with some people, it’s better if you just talk calmly: “Hey, you just need to go for the armbar,” or “You need to put your feet in his hips and push him away and stand up.” What will your approach be? I’ll just try to get to know everybody. I have no idea how The Ultimate Fighter is structured, how they do anything. I just know that it’s going to be a great experience. I’m going to be like a fish out of water. Of course, I expect to do my best and give 110 percent. Have you watched any of the past seasons of the show? The first season I watched a couple of shows, but I’m not a big TV guy. If I’m in front of a TV, most of the time it’s playing video games. I tried to watch The Ultimate Fighter because some of my friends were on, but it came on at 10 at night. When I’m training for a fight, I’m in bed by 10. How do you think the increased exposure you’ll have from the show will affect your life? That’s something I’m dealing with. I’ve got to get used to being more popular. Back when I was fighting in Japan, I was more popular, but I could come home and just be a normal guy. In all honesty, I still wish I could be that guy. I wish I could go to the fights and enjoy the fans and get to know them and hang out with them and take pictures with them and then come home and just be myself and hang out with my kids and do whatever I do with my friends—just be myself. You see, I’m not fighting to be popular or famous. I’m fighting to make money and save money for my kids so they can have it better than I had it growing up. I love the fans. I don’t think anybody loves the fans more than me. But I’m a human being. I have bad days, but most of the time, I’m in a good mood. I’m just afraid of new popularity. It’s hard to believe that people want my autograph because I still think of myself as an everyday guy. You’ve certainly got everyday ears. They haven’t been banged up yet. How do you manage that? I don’t know. Some people get it the first month they do grappling and jiu-jitsu, but my ears haven’t got there yet. Do you drain them when they swell? I’ve never had to. When I feel like my ear gets touched or rubbed the wrong way, I stop and grab it. [My opponent is] seriously going for the takedown, and I just grab my ear and rub it. If he tries to submit me or get me in a triangle choke, I’m rubbing my ear. Then I get out [of the hold] and move on him. I want to keep my ears the way God made them. How about your nose? Have you had your nose broken? I’ve had my nose broken; it’s not the worst thing. When I retire from fighting, I want to get it fixed—or not. I don’t care. It’s part of who I am as fighter. It’s character, you know? I try to be a realist, to be myself and to stay humble. The crazy thing is that the fighters on a reality show get famous overnight. Everybody knows their name and face, and then their friends will change—even if they don’t change. Some people get busy, and their friends want to hang out with them. They say, “Oh, let’s do this,” and I’m like, “No, I’ve got to train for my next fight.” And then they think I’ve changed. That’s what we go through. And I’m not complaining. It’s just one of the new things that come with the UFC. It’s crazy. In my first fight, I got the UFC jitters. I heard about them, but I didn’t think I was going to get them. What was that like? It’s like having your first fight again—and I’ve fought in front of 70,000 people in Japan. I learned how to deal with it. I’m smart enough to figure things out pretty quick. When I’m training, if I’m doing jiu-jitsu with somebody and they flatten me out with a certain move, that guy will be lucky if he can get me twice with the same move. I adapt. I just have to adapt to this stardom. If someone were to ask you which arts and skills you’d recommend for self-defense, what would you say? Train in muay Thai kickboxing. Muay Thai is the best form of self-defense because you can use all your tools: elbows, knees, kicks and punches. If a person is giving you problems on the street, most of the time that person won’t know any martial arts, so you could probably take on more than one person at a time with muay Thai. How about Brazilian jiu-jitsu and wrestling? They should be secondary because most fights go to the ground, but when you’re on the street, you try not to go to the ground. You want to strike as many people as you can. I’ve been jumped a lot, and I never wanted to go to the ground because then you have to deal with stomping and all the good stuff. You’re very vulnerable. Jiu-jitsu isn’t going to help you if there are two or more people. Were you able to avoid going to the ground in your street fights? No. I got stomped. I went to the ground a lot before I started wrestling. I got kicked in the [groin] and stomped in the head. If I’d known muay Thai, I could have gotten away with stand-up. What are your top techniques for self-defense? The techniques you should know involve using your knees and elbows because those are the hardest parts of your body. The right cross is great. The jab—why would you try to use the jab? A jab is used to set stuff up, but in self-defense you want stuff that will knock your opponent out. If you kick most people in the leg, they’ll leave you alone. One of my friends messes with me all the time because I’m a fighter. When he won’t leave me alone, I kick him in the leg. If you give somebody a good kick to the leg, the muscle will go into shock if his body isn’t used to it. So I’d recommend a muay Thai kick to the outside thigh. 
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