"Rampage" Jackson says he's done with the UFC - not fighting - after his next bout

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Quinton "Rampage" Jackson opened up a can of worms last week when he revealed in an interview with Fighter's Only that, not only had he been administered testosterone replacement therapy for his UFC 144 fight with Ryan Bader, but it was a UFC doctor who sent him to an "age clinic" to receive the treatment.

The interview has brought plenty of heat on "Rampage" from all sides, including the UFC, which led to a bit of an outburst on Twitter in which he said his next fight would be the last of his UFC career.

"I will fight who ever they put [in] front of me, I always have, but it will [be] my last fight n the UFC," Rampage wrote. "I have other things on my mind."

Those other things apparently include continuing to fight, just not in the UFC.

"I didn't say I would [be] done fighting," he responded to questioning fans. "I just said I'm not fighting [for] the UFC (u fight cheap) I said I have other things on my mind (big head)."

"[Why] should I stay? I don't need them or anybody else negative dealing with my [career]."

Now, much of this could have been venting, and Rampage had a few more cryptic comments on Twitter in the morning to follow up.

"Sorry guys just been going threw a lot [and] I was trying [to] stay positive last night, [and] it worked, so I'm just gonna start over! [You] helped me!" he wrote. "I know [one] place I'm not going back [to]! I'm going [to be] with my wife [and] kids [and] sin no more! Just ask [for] forgiveness! [knew] I'd win this 1!"

However, shortly thereafter, this next Tweet hit the stream:

"I need help with positive energy once again," he said. "[You] can tell things ain't right, [you] helped me last night! I love [you] all, wish I could say what's up."

Penick's Analysis: Rampage seems to be having quite the emotional rollercoaster at the moment, and he's letting it spill out in public on Twitter. His comments to Fighter's Only really did open up a whole new line of questions in regards to the prevalence of testosterone replacement therapy in the UFC. We've had the high profile cases now with Dan Henderson, Nate Marquardt, Chael Sonnen, and now Rampage, but even last weekend in Strikeforce it's come out that Bristol Marunde received a therapeutic use exemption for TRT. This is a system that's being abused, and Rampage's case especially spelled out how it was used to have him recover faster and to be in line with what he would have been in his 20s. He's 33! They haven't done nearly the amount of testing done on his testosterone levels to determine in a legitimate fashion that he needs TRT, and so it very easily makes it look like a performance enhancer. We'll see what comes of this, but right now this may just be a case of Rampage negatively reacting to the response to his comments, and he may cool down before his next fight.

[Rampage Jackson art by Cory Gould (c) MMATorch.com]

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/UFC_2/article_12712.shtml

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