Will the 'Old Rampage' Return on Saturday Night? - Joe Chacon's Blog

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Will the 'Old Rampage' Return on Saturday Night? Stuck

Posted on January 22, 2013 at 01:03 PM.

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�You�re going to see the old Rampage�

How many times have we heard this statement from Quinton �Rampage� Jackson over the last couple of years?

I still remember how excited I was to hear the news of Jackson coming to the UFC to fight Marvin Eastman in 2007. I�ve pulled for him even when he didn�t deserve to have fans support him. The last straw for me was watching him show up overweight for his fight in Japan against Ryan Bader.

That was supposed to be the return of Rampage. He was returning to his Pride stomping grounds and was poised to unleash those ferocious trademark punches of his en route to a knockout.

Instead we saw a fighter who looked like he couldn�t care less about his performance inside the Octagon.

Let�s be honest, Jackson hasn�t looked like the guy we saw in Pride since his 2008 fight against Wanderlei Silva at UFC 92. In that fight he knocked out Silva in the first round and bounced back after an embarrassing loss to Forrest Griffin.

Since that fight against Silva, Jackson has wins against Keith Jardine, Lyoto Machida, and Matt Hamill. Although it is true, �a win is a win�, all three of those wins were relatively disappointing. We never saw the explosiveness from Jackson that we see when he�s firing on all cylinders. Jackson himself wasn�t impressed with those victories and he knew in a couple of those fights that he barely escaped with the win.

So here we are just four days out from a highly anticipated fight between Jackson and Glover Teixiera. Teixiera is riding a 17 fight win streak and hasn�t lost since 2006.

Jackson already has one foot outside of the Octagon and has done nothing but try and put a negative outlook on how the UFC treats its fighters. He has also stated that the UFC is not going to be the end of his career and that he may pursue a boxing career after he fulfills his UFC contract on Saturday.

It wouldn�t surprise me in the least to see Jackson show up overweight and basically throw up the middle finger to the UFC brass. I do hold out hope, however, that we will see the �old Rampage� for one last time.

Perhaps Jackson will use this final UFC fight as a showcase of his talents in the same way athletes in other sports do during their contract year.

We can only hope.

OS Voice: What can we expect from Rampage Jackson on Saturday night?

Joe Chacon is a staff writer for Operation Sports and a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @JoeChacon.