• UFC 144

Rampage threatens Rich Franklin after missing weight

ESPN staff
February 25, 2012
Rampage Jackson forfeits a percentage of his purse to Ryan Bader after failing to make weight © Getty Images
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Rampage Jackson stole the headlines at the UFC 144 weigh-ins after he came in five pounds over the legal limit for his light-heavyweight battle with Ryan Bader, which will still go ahead this weekend.

Jackson, who promises to put on a huge show for the Japanese public, needed to hit 206lbs for the non-title bout, but he tipped the scales at 211. He then quickly revealed an injury in training as the reason for his error.

"I wasn't going to say anything, I thought I was going to make weight," Rampage told FUEL TV. "I got injured in my camp and it kind of hindered me from doing a lot running. I didn't want to miss this fight, this fight was important to me and I fought so hard to get it so I said, 'Forget it, I'm just going to man up and still make the fight.'

"I kept training in other ways, but I just couldn't get the road work in. Then, I healed up and starting getting road work in but it was a little bit too late. I started cutting weight, but I had a lot of weight to cut.

"I cut 21 pounds, I just couldn't get the last six. It's kind of difficult, you got to weigh-in earlier [in Japan] and I kind of underestimated the time. I woke up at three o'clock this morning to cut weight. I cut everything I had."

Rampage would not specifically reveal what the injury was, in order to prevent Bader gaining a potential advantage, but Jackson then took issue with former champion Rich Franklin. As a FUEL TV analyst, Franklin stated prior to Jackson's interview that he had either not taken Bader seriously, or had stumbled into problems during his camp.

Reacting angrily, it is believed Jackson only heard the first part of Franklin's explanation, and he took major issue with the suggestion that he had not trained seriously.

"Well, my friend already texted me what Rich Franklin said and Rich Franklin needs to watch his mouth before I smack him the next time I see him," Rampage said. "He's a fighter just like I'm a fighter, he should watch what he say. You don't question whether a fighter is taking a fight seriously or not. I take all my fights seriously."

Elsewhere, everybody hit their targets, meaning Frankie Edgar and Ben Henderson are all set to go in the night's main event. The UFC lightweight title goes on the line in Japan as Edgar bids to take a step closer to being acknowledged as the best lightweight the UFC has ever seen.

Weigh-in results:
Frankie Edgar (154) vs. Ben Henderson (154)
Quinton Jackson (211) vs. Ryan Bader (205)
Cheick Kongo (229) vs. Mark Hunt (263)
Yoshihiro Akiyama (169) vs. Jake Shields (170)
Yushin Okami (185) vs. Tim Boetsch (186)
Hatsu Hioki (145) vs. Bart Palaszewski (146)
Anthony Pettis (155) vs. Joe Lauzon (156)
Takanori Gomi (155) vs. Eiji Mitsuoka (154)
Norifumi Yamamoto (136) vs. Vaughan Lee (135)
Riki Fukuda (185) vs. Steve Cantwell (185)
Takeya Mizugaki (135) vs. Chris Cariaso (136)
Zhang Tiequan (146) vs. Issei Tamura (145)

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