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Wed Oct 28, 2009 12:00 pm EDT

Tito Ortiz interview: Stop ripping 'Rampage' for TUF 10

By Steve Cofield

Quinton "Rampage" Jackson had some folks scratching their heads after his win at UFC 96 in March. He was offered a shot at light heavyweight champ Lyoto Machida and passed. The reason? He explained that he could make more money and get extra attention from a gig on the UFC's reality show. It was all about the benjamins. Well, if the goal was to turn himself into a heel, he's done a brilliant job through six weeks of The Ultimate Figher 10. His public spat with the UFC and Dana White hasn't helped either.

Through the beginning of 2009, Rampage was probably amongst the top five fan favorites with mixed martial arts followers. That's probably not the case now. He is taking a beating from viewers coming off as childish, immature, selfish and his fight knowledge seems to be at an elementary level. Cagewriter spoke Rampage's friend Tito Ortiz who said everyone needs to take it easy on his buddy (5:00 mark):

"On The Ultimate Fighter, he's not a coach, he's a fighter. He's a kid who came from the streets, he's in survival mode right now," told DC and The Sunshine Man show on ESPNRadio1100 in Las Vegas.

Ortiz explained that he was cut out for the coaching spot on The Ultimate Fighter 3 because he came from a wrestling background. Rampage has never been a guy who should be motivating others, he has enough trouble doing that himself:

"I used have to press him, I used to have to push him because he never wanted to bring the best out of him. When he went on his own, he understood that the only way to survive is to work super hard."

Ortiz backs Rampage's decision to make a run at a movie career saying he has a lot of mouth's to feed but he also said some of his decisions have been ill-advised and that the UFC did take care of him in the past. This is the new Tito, straddling the fence!&

Tito was also asked about his TMZ encounter with a flunky on the streets of L.A. who was asking for money. Make sure you listen to what Ortiz says about Mexicans and their work ethic (2:48 mark).

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41 Comments

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  1. anonymous
    1. Posted by anonymous Wed Oct 28, 2009 12:20 pm EDT

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    Guarantee you the old, Tito will be back as soon as he loses....
    We will here the excuses, etc, etc, etc
    We will see teh "poor" sport in him. Whether he flips off his opponent or walks away refusing to shake hands, etc, etc
    The old douchebag Tito will be back AS soon as thigns dont go his way.
    ALSO willing to bet Tito, in hisa "homeless" days BEGGED for change/money on FAR MORE than ONE occasion. Heroin addicts like Tito says he was was concerned about "working hard".....He either STOLE what he needed to survive and/or begged for it. F**k Tito for acting like this. He has been in that homeless guys' shoes, anddid EXACLTY what he was doing and/or just took the easier route and stole or ripped someone off for money.
    Tito is not fooling anyone....well, except the Tito nuthuggers that would prob give him a BJ if he asked.
  2. Rob R
    2. Posted by Rob R Wed Oct 28, 2009 12:27 pm EDT

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    Sorry, Tito...We're going to bag on Rampage for torpedoing the careers of 8 UFC prospects just so he could make some more money for himself.
  3. JJ
    3. Posted by JJ Wed Oct 28, 2009 12:47 pm EDT

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    Another blog about the UFC....
  4. Instant Money
    4. Posted by Instant Money Wed Oct 28, 2009 12:50 pm EDT

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    Forrest will send Tito back to the streets, Forrest looks like Notre Dame's mascot. Just like Notre Dame, he can be overrated but he still puts up a good fight. Let's just hope the Fighting Irish shows up and not the Hump-back of Notre Dame.
  5. Dustin
    5. Posted by Dustin Wed Oct 28, 2009 1:26 pm EDT

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    All I have to say is nobody should get paid for doing nothing. Stand in from of Home Depot and wait for someone to pick you up to do some old fashion hard work if you need the coin. People do it every day. It all comes down to how you feel about hand outs. I respect anybody who put's themselves out there and takes a minimum wage job cause they were laid off, of sells apples on the highway or like I said get's up every morning like they are going to work and stand's in front of a building materials store praying they get picked up so they can work for some honest, hard earned money. Rattling a can or begging people who look like they have it to spare is rediculous.
    Oh and I'm looking forward to the return of Ortiz, he gave three of the top 205lb's a good test before exiting the UFC, Evans (win IMO), Forrest (win), and Machida ("I thought I was going to die"...lol).
  6. U-Mahoo
    6. Posted by U-Mahoo Wed Oct 28, 2009 1:45 pm EDT

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    Sorry but there aren't ANY "PROSPECTS" thus far to come out of the show...
  7. Allen
    7. Posted by Allen Wed Oct 28, 2009 1:53 pm EDT

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    There's at least 3 prospects on the show U.
    Cannot wait to watch why the door was ripped in half, and who did it.
    As for Rampage, his actions speak for themselves. Whether it is for television (and what was supposed to be hype for an upcoming match with Rashad) or the sake of being a glorified 5th grader, he has his motives. More power to him, but if he gets bagged on for it, then deal with it.
    And are we EVER going to see another picture of Tito without JJ glued to his side?
    Does anyone else think that Tito will go the way of the adult film industry once he is done fighting?
  8. AdamG
    8. Posted by AdamG Wed Oct 28, 2009 2:11 pm EDT

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    Tito Ortiz continues his campaign to never fight Rampage Jackson...
  9. hookers4jesus
    9. Posted by hookers4jesus Wed Oct 28, 2009 2:13 pm EDT

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    Rampage not really acting like a coach is disappointing to his job title for that show. but are you seriously gonna try to convince anyone that any of those heavyweights on TUF are going to get that much better with 3 weeks training. hahahahah get real. those guys are as good as they were going to be on the show. the 3 weeks they are on that show is for the TOURNAMENT style fight format to receive a contract and their skill levels were not going to change in 3 weeks, no matter who coached or pretended to coach or didnt coach. just because you only see 1 show a week and the season lasts 3 or 4 months doesnt mean those guys were in the house this whole time. they were there for 3 weeks. dont forget that. Rampage should "act" like a coach though, but he shouldnt be getting the blame for how badly his team sucks(other than picking them). their skill levels suck and he cannot change that in 3 weeks.
  10. Robert C
    10. Posted by Robert C Wed Oct 28, 2009 2:14 pm EDT

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    Tito is so marketable because I think most of us want to see him get KO'd. The unfortunate part is that as much as we may hate him, he gets paid well to be hated.
    Who knows, maybe in real life he is a nice guy without the big head. Probably not, but who really knows.
    He has not won a fight lately, but he is headlining a UFC event. So he is very successful with his marketablitiy.
    I hope Forrest is able to win this time. It will have to be a submission, since Forrest couldn't knock out a school girl. But oh wouldn't it be great if Forrest was able to KO Tito. Yes, yes it would.
  11. Patrón
    11. Posted by Patrón Wed Oct 28, 2009 2:22 pm EDT

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    It's not about him being a bad coach, it's him not being a decent human being i.e. ignoring his fighters when they lose, picking on kid who's just trying to get his start. So ya, he's not a coach, but that doesn't excuse him from being a prick!
  12. Rob R
    12. Posted by Rob R Wed Oct 28, 2009 2:23 pm EDT

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    Hookers...I don't expect Rampage to increase a fighter's hand speed or make him a BJJ black belt in three weeks, but a coach can game plan and a coach can motivate. Rampage does neither...Rashad does both. Everyone on Team Rampage got the short end of the coaching stick...that cannot be denied.
    If you took two identical fighters and put them in the cage, one coached for a week and cornered by Rashad, the other by Rampage, I bet Rashad's fighter wins at least 7 of the 10 fights between them.
  13. the1upper08
    13. Posted by the1upper08 Wed Oct 28, 2009 2:57 pm EDT

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    I've been incredibly underwhelmed by this season of TUF. The "NFL players" have turned out to be a bunch of unconditioned cry babies. Big Country has turned out to be an arrogant prick, and Rashad has actually come across as a geniune guy that cares about his team.
    Rampage is out for himself. And i don't think he made any bones about it. He's in it for the exposure. He's funny, sure, but sitting there watching his fighter get helped up from the canvas by Team Rashad should be a slap in the face.
    No matter what people may think about Kimbo, he's atleast come with the attitude to learn. He's displayed the LEAST diva-like attitude than any of them. In the end, i don't see any of this current cast making any sort of a splash in the UFC HW division. armchairfighters.com
  14. hookers4jesus
    14. Posted by hookers4jesus Wed Oct 28, 2009 3:24 pm EDT

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    yes rashaad is a better coach in terms of what a coaches responsibilites are. wont argue that. but as far as comming up with a game plan for several different fighters on only days notice, coaching will only be a small impact. thats the fighters skills levels that show there. i would say, if the only thing you did was switch the coaches from one side to the other, rashaads current team would still beat all of rampages current team. hands down.
    why rampage is not even pretending to act like a coach is kinda strange and i completely agree that he is horrible at motivating other people, but the reason he took the spot was for the build up of his fight with rashaad, not to coach. he wanted to hype his fight for months and months. i put the coaching blame on the UFC. if they are going to pretend to have coaches for their TUF guy tournament, they need to have people who will atleast act like a coach. they knew rampage only wanted to hype his fight, but they overlooked that with the idea of HUGE ppv numbers dancing in their heads.
  15. Rob R
    15. Posted by Rob R Wed Oct 28, 2009 3:43 pm EDT

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    Hookers...Thing is, picking teams and picking fights is also part of the equation, and Rampage failed both miserably. He put his team in a position to fail by allowing Rashad's team to be stacked and then losing control of fight selection by putting Wagner in against Madsen.
  16. Rob R
    16. Posted by Rob R Wed Oct 28, 2009 3:49 pm EDT

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    I will definitely agree that part of the blame for this falls on UFC. Rampage coached against Forrest Griffin and did poorly...why allow him to screw up more careers? Penn-Sanchez, even though they would be lightweights coaching heavyweights, would have made for good coaches and good entertainment...and their PPV fight is the same day as Rashad-Rampage would have been.
  17. Dustin
    17. Posted by Dustin Wed Oct 28, 2009 4:33 pm EDT

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    #16
    That would have been a great scenario.....Penn vs. Sanchez.....yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!
  18. Rob R
    18. Posted by Rob R Wed Oct 28, 2009 4:54 pm EDT

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    Probably wouldn't have worked for the heavyweight season though. I doubt Team Penn has anyone qualified to train or gameplan for a heavyweight. Sanchez left Jackson's, but he had a decent team of trainers for the Stevenson fight...just not sure if they'd want to assistant coach a TUF season.
    It's a moot point now, I guess.
  19. hookers4jesus
    19. Posted by hookers4jesus Wed Oct 28, 2009 6:25 pm EDT

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    picking teams he failed miserably.agreed. he only picked 1 fight though and lost control. bad choice of matchup but still he has only picked 1 of the match ups, and the rest have been picked by rashaad. so i wouldnt say he has failed miserably in picking fights. just miserable in picking 1 fight. it does show how poorly rampage picked his team though, or it shows how amazingly rashaad has picked the matchups?
  20. jayyolf1
    20. Posted by jayyolf1 Wed Oct 28, 2009 8:03 pm EDT

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    Personally, I liked the way Tito dealt with that "homeless" guy who was clean shaven; and I liked his response of how if the guy had been trying to sell him a water bottle or something he would have helped. That's right, that's how it should be done, work for yours!!! If a CLEAN SHAVEN guy would have come up to me and asked for money, I would have said the same thing - "get a job."
    Other than that, Tito is back smoking crack if he thinks he can get the LHW title again and defend it that many times again!!!!! yeah right!!!! I will be impressed if he can even EARN a title shot!!!
  21. wave f
    21. Posted by wave f Wed Oct 28, 2009 8:03 pm EDT

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    The circle is finally showing how it works. Rampage picked Kimbo first on TUF because Kimbo has access to pornstar chicks for Rampage..........Tito defends Rampage because he is also a pornstar hound.. STD lovers unite!!
  22. steve p
    22. Posted by steve p Wed Oct 28, 2009 8:09 pm EDT

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    Rampage is the man!!! he will be ok
  23. jayyolf1
    23. Posted by jayyolf1 Wed Oct 28, 2009 8:12 pm EDT

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    Allen - I also can't wait to see why the door on TUF 10 was destroyed!!!!! So far that preview/highlight has been the best thing on the show!!! Makes me laugh every time!!! How many of us have wanted to do that when we've been pissed off??? I just can't believe how whoever did it (I bet it's Rampage after his next fighter loses ANOTHER fight), took out that door with such ease!!!! Made it look like it was made out of paper!!! AWESOME!!!
    I also can't wait to see what "Big Baby" is gonna do when he gets in the cage!
    The other NFL guy, Wes Shivers, looked like he could have done some damage if he would get his cardio up, so hopefully Big Baby won't disappoint!!!
  24. ckman8765
    24. Posted by ckman8765 Thu Oct 29, 2009 12:18 am EDT

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    Does this blog have a copy editor? Adding an apostrophe to a word does not make it plural.
  25. Haladin
    25. Posted by Haladin Thu Oct 29, 2009 12:42 am EDT

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    Why did Rampage take the coaching gig on this show? Wouldn't he have made more by fighting Machida? It's obvius he doesn't working with the guys on his team and he doesn't care that much except when his pride is hurt. From having Tito have to make excuses for you and then ranting about at the UFC from Twitter like a lunatic makes me if Rampage doesn't need to be medicated or committed.

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