Thursday, August 20, 2009

Rampage Fired Up For TUF 10 And A Crack At Evans

By Mike Branson

Jackson will get his wish of fighting Rashad. Despite being next in line for a shot at the new champ, Jackson has instead opted for a late-2009 fight with Evans, which will be preceded by a six week coaching stint with his rival on the tenth season of The UFC Ultimate Fighter.

Dana told me I could fight whoever, and I had my mind set to fight Evans, said Rampage.

According to White, the result of Saturdays bout didnt sway Jacksons desire to fight Evans in the least.

He told me, This is personal, recalled the UFC boss. The titles gonna be there. Whether Machida fights again and keeps the title or loses it, Im going after the title, but I want to kick Rashads ass.

When somebody says that to me, said White. Im in. I want to give guys fights that theyre fired up for, motivated for, and excited for. Rampage is really motivated and fired up to fight Rashad for getting in his face. Hes upset about it, and I know that Rashad would like to fight Rampage too.

The feud between the two 205-pound standouts began at UFC 96, when Evans and Jackson went nose to nose in the Octagon after Rampages win over Keith Jardine. A jaw injury prevented Jackson from challenging for Evans title at UFC 98.

To be honest, I wanted to sharpen up some of my skills, said Jackson, who has won two in a row since losing the light heavyweight title toForrest in 2008. I want to get my wrestling and ground game back up to par, and this gives me the time to heal up. I trained really hard for the Wanderlei (Silva) fight and then went right back into training for Jardine. This gives me time to kick it with my kids and sharpen up my skills. This is my job, this is my life, and I want to put the best foot forward and I want to be the best champion that ever lived.

He also promises a return of his trademark slams.

I havent been slamming people in a while, he said. I want to get back to slamming people and I want to be more unpredictable. Thats whats got me this far, I was unpredictable back in the day. When I work on something and I find a love for something, I stick to it. So I was trying to box people and knock everybody out. Now Im working on everything " Im not just sticking to one thing. I want to be the Ultimate Fighter, the guy who can do everything " like GSP, baby.

First though, theres the business of coaching on TUF, which will feature the heavyweights for the tenth season. Both Evans and Jackson are familiar with the series, Evans as the heavyweight winner of season two, and Jackson as the coach of season seven.

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