Quinton
“Rampage” Jackson’s destruction of the
Ultimate Fighting Championship gym door during
“The Ultimate Fighter” Season 10 remains one of the most iconic
moments in the history of the show.
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Jackson starred opposite “TUF 2” winner Rashad
Evans as a rival coach on “TUF 10,” which drew record views,
courtesy the addition of street fight icon Kevin
Ferguson. Jackson and Evans had plenty of heated altercations
during the show, adding to its lure.
However, Jackson’s team didn’t find much success with only one
fighter, Marcus
Jones, progressing beyond the first round. So, when “Rampage”
destroyed the gym door after Scott Junk’s
majority decision loss against Matt
Mitrione, fans assumed the reason to be overall frustration.
However, Jackson claims there were more serious grievances that led
to that moment.
“Do you know why I was so pissed on that show? I had done that
season with Rashad but I did it with Forrest [Griffin] first [on
TUF 7]. I’m going to keep it 100, I thought it was racism. I did.
The way they were treating me and my team, I thought it was
racism,” said Jackson.
“OK, I’m used to that; I’m from the south. But with Rashad, the
same sh*t happened again. I’m like, ‘Man, this can’t be racism?’ I
don’t always speak up about racism if I think somebody’s being
racist because you could be wrong, and I was wrong that time. It
wasn’t. It was because they wanted the coach to win that came from
the show and my fighters were telling me, ‘Man, we got to write
down on a list what we want. Healthy food and stuff like that.’
They’d never get it, or it would take three or four days to get it.
With other teams, they write something down, they got it right
away, but if we write down, we want some liquor, we got that sh*t
within hours.”
Jackson also claims to have approached producers regarding the
request delays for his team but to no avail. Winner of the season
Roy
Nelson, who was on the podcast with Jackson, also recollected
instances when fighters from the opposing team requested him to put
down their items on his list. Junk’s loss to Mitrione was the final
nail in the coffin for Jackson, who believes the decision should
have gone the other way.
“It was a real close fight and I felt like they cheated my fighter,
that’s why I destroyed that door,” Jackson said. “I was trying to
leave the room; I knew I was losing my temper. I said, ‘Man, I
finna fu*k this whole room up. Let me get out of here.’ They were
cheating my team.”
“I thought the fight was so close, if they didn’t give it to my
guy, they should have at least had another round.”