“Rampage is a very emotional fighter, a very emotional person, and he just let his emotions take over his rational thinking. I think that him and Dana White just probably need to talk it out, and get past it. I think it’s just a breakdown in communication. Dana’s the kind of guy who is going to say what is on his mind, maybe without thinking it through all the way, before he said. Rampage is a hothead, as well. You get two tempers like that, go at each other like that, it makes the situation hard to work through. I’d be disappointed not to fight him. It would be a good fight, a fun fight, but mostly because he talked trash. He got me really angry, and I want to fight him just because of that alone. It’s a fight that people want to see. You get your mind wrapped up, and you get your mind so psyched up about fighting a fighter, and then it doesn’t happen, it’s disappointing. That’s why I hate making a fight personal. At the end of the day, we’re professional athletes, and we get paid to do a job. But when you get to fight someone you really want to fight, that’s like a bonus. You’d almost do it for free…. I would have loved to punch him in the face for free.”
– Rashad Evans — the man caught in the middle of the controversy between UFC President Dana White and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson — tells
CageWriter.com that at this point he’d fight the former light heavyweight champion for free if he could. Evans and Jackson are opposing coaches on this season of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) who were supposed to settle their grudge match in the UFC 107 main event at the FedEX Forum in Memphis, Tenn., on Dec. 12. But that bout, which would have been in front of Jackson’s hometown crowd, was recently postponed when Jackson accepted the role as B.A. Barracus for the “A-Team” feature film that is currently in production. Then the fight was scrapped altogether when Jackson yesterday announced via his personal Web site that he was leaving the fight game indefinitely because of White’s less than supportive comments regarding his decision. That now leaves Evans in the lurch, but perhaps hungrier than ever to get his hands on Jackson once and for all. Will it happen when the dust settles or will Evans move on to bigger and better things sooner rather than later?