Dana White provided additional comments on the Quinton “Rampage” Jackson arrest and hospitalization this morning on the Opie & Anthony Show on XM Radio.
Among the odder moments of the nearly 12-minute appearance was White, the UFC president, noting Jackson was “born again” in 2003.
Jackson’s actions (partying in Las Vegas included) over the past few days don’t seem fit in with the Christian tradition and certainly don’t provide any answers for his recent behavior.
However, his bizarre diet during that time might provide some clues.
“He went on some crazy fasting thing,” White said. “He didn’t drink anything but water and energy drinks for four or five days. He didn’t sleep a lot.”
It’s obviously not a clinical diagnosis. But it’s the closest thing to an explanation that’s been offered by anybody close with the former UFC champion to date.
We can only assume that White mentioned religion as a way of saying that Jackson’s a good person — an opinion that is shared by most people in MMA.
White said Jackson is still in a hospital undergoing a psychological examination.
“He’s alright,” White said. “When the thing happened it made no sense to me at all.”
Then: “I don’t know what he’s going through right now. He’s a friend of mine. He’s a good guy.”
Jackson, a father of four, becoming a born-again Christian has been noted in numerous publications over the past year. His trainer, Juanito Ibarra, is also a born-again Christian.
60 Comments »
Well Hope god really pulls through for Rampage. Sure sounds like he needs it right now.
Lack of Sleep and not eating certain contributed to a lot of it.
If u don’t sleep for 4 days, I’m positive most anyone would get delusional. Looka like there’s a more there than just lack of sleep and nervous breakdown. It is common for manics to be profoundly religious.
Rampage will be fine and we will see him back in an Octagon in 6-9 months! He is still young so the lay off doesnt matter much!
and its common for profundly religious ppl to be maniacs
yeah…not eating or drinking is def a problem…then replacing it with energy drinks is gonna make it even worse
His actions seem to be linear with that of a patient diagnosed with bi-polar disorder. I would bet that he will be examined and determined to be bipolar. It is a mental disorder that comes on later in life and involves episodes of manic behavior followed by normality. For another example of a famous case of bipolar disorder look up Dutch Boyd.
People think this is bad for MMA, but it’s not! Rampage will now do what certified A-list celebrities do in every other arena of entertainment - go to rehab. Afterwards, he’ll do the “I’m sorry tour.” Cover of People Magazine, interview on The Today Show, crying with Opera. He’ll be bigger than Liddell.
No, seriously, I hope whatever wires got crossed in his head get fixed soon.
why would he cry at the opera?
Ha! Ha!
the phantom of the oprah Winfree show ?
I’m not a shrink but he sounds manic/depressive
I wish all the best for Rampage and everyone around him. He’s Got A Massive Heart he will back soon for sure.
Check the LAZLOW SHOW on the opie & anthony show. Its Great!
Some fasting thing?
White coffe if you know what I mean???
he is washed up.
Ive done a fast before, but I never hit cars or drove up on the sidewalk while trying to evade police. Im not a Born Again Christian and I’m not trying to disrespect any that may come to this blog, but I’m guessing if you are a true Born Again Chritian you would be a little more humble and you dont go around saying “I’m Gonna whoop so and so’s ass” all the time or tell the world “Im gonna go get drunk” after you lose a fight.
Exactly, which is why I dont get why people blame the religion. When somebody is a “Christian” and does something like this, it should be viewed as, somebody who claims to be a christian really isnt acting like it, not that the whole religion is rediculous.
It’s the individuals fault, not chrisitanity’s.
If he didn’t eat anything for days and just drank energy drinks, that will screw with your body and mind. I have blood sugar problems and it will screw with your head.
Yup, that is definitely contributing to him acting so weird. I hope it is just a short faze of depression. Shows what the belt meant to him.
maybe Jackson has same issues as you do.
I agree, and was he fasting for a religious purpose? If your church or religious belief is asking you to do some crazy sh1t like this, maybe it’s time to find another denomination of that religion? I’m not religious and all, but I’d think if there were a god he’d want me to be healthy right?
NF’s B_tch aka LINX - You said it. I’d call myself a believer though not religious in the earning-brownie-points way of viewing things. Your last sentence especially jumped out at me. And I’d have to say Absolutely!
Rubberman - Abso-freakin’-lutely. My mom was diabetic with non-functioning kidneys (had a dialysis machine in our house when I was a kid). My teenage niece is diabetic. It is AMAZING the transformation a little change in brain chemistry can cause. Change the blood sugar levels, and the person transforms into somebody you don’t know. And sometimes my niece can’t remember what happened when her sugar dipped low. She’s much more stable these days, since she uses a pump to regulate insulin. But you nailed it.
Yep, anyone that hasn’t been there or seen it first hand can’t imagine how much someones mental state can change. It can be scary, for the person with the problem or family and friends around them.
Not eating a lot, not sleaping a lot and drinking a lot of energy drinks, aka Coke bender.
It just proves that even born-again Christians can go crazy sometimes, who would have thought.
all christians are a little crazy to begin with
Most of the guys that are religous are the worst ones!!! They can never do no wrong and are always right!!!
come on guys lets not get to critical here…most of these people who act “self righteous” are not acting the right way. Those are the Christians that are always making it look bad for the rest of us (Christians) Also, there is no fast I have EVER heard of that requires you to only drink water and energy drinks lol. I think that was a Rampage special. In all honesty some people may not belive what Christians believe and thats ok. Just because somone is “born again” doesnt mean they are going to be perfect from there on out, so if Rampage gets drunk and says hes gonna whoop ass, thats just him actin like typical Rampage. He’s just born again, he has along way to go, but hes already taken the biggest step (admitting your a sinner, asking for forgiveness & aknowledgin that Jesus dies for you). And for those of you who want to start bashing Christianity, at least we arent the ones asking you to strap a bomb to yourself and go blow up innocent civilians in the nam of Mohammmed or Allah.
Chadx23, I’m an atheist, but if you’re going to generalize a specific religion such as islam you should take a look at what some of the ‘crazies christians’ do as well. don’t say islam teaches ppl to blow themselves up, that’s just some crazies that uses their religion as an excuse to teach hate (take a look at ‘crazies’ from christians, kill abortion doctors, kill g@ys, say US is responsible for katrina because of g@ys and soldiers deserve to d!e, not to mention the catholic church’s support of hitler and the holy war… that’s just some of the stuff, but I wouldn’t say christians teach these things, because of course it’s just a small percentage. We can get bad stuff from any religion, this is because all humans have the capability to be evil and to be good, it has nothing to do with religion per se.
WOrd. like I said, its teh individuals faults, not christianity, or islam for bombings.
What you are saying about the “crazy Christians” is absurd. There is no, I repeat NO, legitimate Christian church that teaches anyone to kill abortion doctors or gays. And yes some TV evvangelists say stupid things, but that’s why they are not the real spokesperson of Christianity, they are more like a side show to most of us believers. But on the other hand, something like 20% of islam followers believe and are taught that it’s ok to suicide bomb markets in the name of allah. And 20% of over a billion muslims is quite a bit of people, more than a small minority, like the “crazy christians” you refer to.
I think what Linx is trying to say (and I somewhat agree) is that there are people out there who “claim” to be Christian, I know some like this, and act crazy and think that abortion doctors should be shot or what not. I call these people radicals. Linx was just correcting me for generalizing about the religion of Islam, which I did, and he has a valid point. I have never read the Koran, so I wouldn’t know what all it says in there, so I probably shouldnt gebneralize that all muslims are suiicide bombers, but like “The Beast” said, it does seem to be quuite a few of them in those particular countries like Afghanistan and what not where there are alot of radical muslims or what not. I like conversaions like these, there so deep.
If you are truly a Christian, you admit that you are absolutely imperfect. Rampage can be a Christian and still make mistakes, he is a Christian, not Christ himself.
That being said, I can’t say that I truly believe that all of what has happened recently to Rampage is due to a fast. I am sure it would not help matters, but there is more to it than that. For instance, I am a huge Chuck Liddell fan, but I didn’t believe Dana when he said Chuck fell asleep on television just because he had taken NyQuil.
Thanks for being open minded Chadx23, I also like talking about religion but I’ll keep it at minimum here since this is an MMA forum. The only thing I’d like to say to The Beast is where he gets his numbers from. “something like 20% of islam followers believe and are taught that it’s ok to suicide bomb markets in the name of allah” where is your source or are you just making this up? If you take the percentage of ppl that follows islam that teaches these things from a community of roughly 1.8 billion ppl (Wikipedia), yeah, you might have a lot of ppl blowing themselves up because it’s from a range of 1.8 billion ppl, but 20%??? Just one percent is 18 million ppl. Now, if you were to put the ‘crazies’ from christianity (and there are places that teaches hate) in a percentage figure how many ppl do you think you’d get? All I’m saying is that you can’t just believe everything fox news throws at you, if islam really taught this things, we wouldn’t be here today because that’s 1.8 billion ppl blowing themselves up within a world that has 6.6 billion ppl.
Everyone is getting sidetracked here, it’s not about being a born again christian. Rampage has flipped about because he can’t handle losing to forrest. He didn’t believe forrest was a worthy opponent and he even said that. When they fought he hit forrest with everything he got forrest fell picked himself back up and kept on going. In the 2nd forrest hurt rampage and then took his belt. Rampage afterwards still kept saying he thought he won and COULDN’T accept that forrest beat him.
Rampage obviously isn’t mentally strong enough to deal with this. Ok he might of been on a ‘crazy diet thing’ but why did he go on a diet. Why didn’t he just keep on training and a couple of months down the track fight forrest again. Born again or diet it’s his ability to cope with losing and he hasn’t done that very well. Lets just hope that he can accept his loss and move on because thats the catalyst for what has happened.
GET OVER IT RAMPAGE AND START DOING WHAT YOU DO BEST WHOOPING ASS
are you rampage’s shrink to know exactly what he’s going through? We can speculate all we want, but in the end of the day non of us know exactly what is causing his short mental falling until we get more information.
Why do all of you keep talking religion? What does being a christian, islamic, or the color green have to do with Rampage being down and just trippin’. It has nothing to do with anything but does show you that maybe he does not have the right people around him. True friends would have seen this coming before he got out of control. Talking religion and trying to tie it into this is NUTS. As long as he wasn’t doing it in the name of any specific religion then he was just hitting bottom. Dana threw the whole religion thing in so we would more readily accept what he did and move on. He might be nuts, tired, hungry, depressed, mad, or whatever but it had nothing to do with religion and once again his “people” should have been there for him and tried to prevent things like this. Especially after losing that close decision like he did.
why?
You can say you are whatever you want. I can say im an ultimate fighter champion, does that make me one? No. Rampage and lots of crazy people can say that they are born again christians, does that make him one? After something like this, most people that know anything about the bible would have to answer, NO.
Many take it like its some kind of trend, dont follow it at all, and make it (christianity) look bad for the ones that are sincere. The bible doesnt support anything Jackson did, so why should it take heat for this? LIke I said, its the individuals who are at fault, not christianity.
But keep in mind, nobody is perfect, and I sincerly hope Rampage can come back and not have his career ruined, this whole ordeal is already bringin me down.
Wow, so much for not getting preachy you guys.
being preachy is ok, its good to talk about this stuff even if we all disagree. The fact that we can have civilized conversations on here most of the time is releiving to me. Alot of people at my work and people I know, I cant discuss religion, politics, or stuff like that with them or else they freak out and people get all pissed off. Its ok to disagree
“What goes around, comes around, I guess,” said Taylor when Jackson’s name was brought up. “I didn’t even know until I watched the show, but he said ‘He doesn’t deserve to to represent the company,’ and look what happened to him.”
Considering Page is in hospital under mental evaluation, real classy.
Then he talks about how the UFC has a double standard in its disciplinary actions.
“Oh yeah, it’s a big double standard. I’m sure if I was the ex-middleweight champion, I could get away with stuff. I’m sure if I would have done (what Jackson did), I’d be banned.”
washed up bwahahahaha, yip Rampage is done, he has no heart!
Crazy fasting thing eh? So he stayed up for 5 days drinking energy drinks, lol…that dude is just awesome. Rampage man, no worries you got legions of fans and you in the top 3 at 205, no need to party while it lasts…
That actually makes some sence. A lot of people son’t know what servere weight cutting does to your physche. It puts tremendous stress and pressure on you and is just not plesant at all. As someone who has experiance cutting weight I can definatley see where Jackson is coming from.
What i don’t get is why he was fasting when he wasn’t training for a fight….I just hope he gets better
Do you think he will be taking another 9 months off again?
As a minister myself, I don’t like making a habit of challenging anyone’s relationship with Christ. I also understand that this is an MMA site and don’t want to get all “preachy”. Having said that, I know alot of people that take some Biblical concepts like fasting, or seclusion and use them to get over some devastating event. It does’nt always work like that. In fact, I usually tell the kids that I work with, to surround themselves with people that will encourage them.
Anyway, I really hope Rampage is sincere and does’nt let Dana, or anyone, use the “I’m born again” thing to excuse his weird behaviour. If he needs clinical help for mental or substance issues, I pray he gets it fast, and yes as cheezy as it may sound to all the tough guys, I will actually be praying for him. As I wil be praying for the injured mother to be. Okay, sorry, sermon has now concluded.
;akndAHlolol!! now thats funny ironic sick humor (if its true)! the guy whorides LA on his way to church? what a story. i’m glad its not a mental handicap but you still gotta feel bad for the lady he ran over. daym! lol you would think after he got arrested the 1st time, he would come to conclusion that starving one’s self isn’t working out and start eating again! I had a coworker that did that same fasting Christian thing and he was getting weird, wacky, snappy & b*tchy like a girl on her rags - crackhead-ish. it was hilarious! LOL!
he did the crime, so he gotta do the time. not only that, he stepped on hella peoples toes and risked being @ gunpoint in LA. dude, you never know about LA 5-0 & minorities. i’m just saying. my position stands, rampage is crazy and i admit i’m scared of him, even sitting here on the computer. its 1 thing to be a threat to yourself, its another thing to be a threat to others. whats the point of religion when u can’t act right?thats messed up. lol
kama kaze:
this just goes to prove that all people make mistakes, and fall short of the glory of God…even once you become a Christian -yes there should be a difference in you- but you still make mistakes…hopefully rampage realizes these mistakes and accepts correction. its unfortunate when well known christians do wrong things because they would be under more scrutiny than, say, an ozzy osbourne or steve-o. people expect more out of them and when they mess up, they can be viewed as hypocrits. No one said it was easy being a Christian, but as one, i cannot imagine how difficult it is for someone who is a Christian and is constantly in the limelight. I wish Rampage the best….
you speak the truth. everybody has their share of mistakes, christian, buddhist, hindu, muslim, jew. it doesn’t matter. we’re all human. i hope my point of view and observations didn’t offend your religion. i been in similar situation as him. of course he’s going to try evade police if they’re trying to pursue him. i had resisting arrest attached to one of mines cuz i didn’t want to get taken away. who wants to get locked up?! looking back at the situation, i can laugh about it and say i learned from mistakes. and i laugh at rampage knowing that he’ll do the same and bounce back. i’m really glad its not mental problems (my brother is skitz) and hope the victims are ok. and i recognize / appreciate people of all religions who put the best foot forward.
Rmapage will pull through this!
Anyone have a link to listen to interview????????????
The Chistian “reminders” are damage control to help maintain Q’s marketabilty. Dana understands his market demographics. Why do you think UFC is so dominant? although this Affliction show does look to be good.
this conversation got pretty deep, religious debate over rampage, wow some new stories just get blown out of porpotion. i wonder how it will all unfold
I just have to say that if he says he’s born again than I’m sure he is. This however does NOT make him perfect. I am a Christian BUT unlike what people think (or even worse what some Christians think) I’m still human and am NOT perfect. Being a Christian doesn’t mean that you won’t sin or do wrong things! It means that you KNOW what is wrong but whether you do the right thing is up to each individual. Hope Rampage is better soon…
Are you kidding me!!! Just because he was a super star and now he is suffering from I got my ass kicked blues I think he should be banned from the UFC. If you remember Jesse wasn’t even a star and Dana said that was not the image he wanted for his company. So to me that sounds like it’s ok if your a star but not if you are an up and comer. So to me I think Dana needs to figure out the image he wants for his company.
JMT i agree. If no one made mistakes than why would we even need God. we strive to be like Him, knowing full well that we cannot possibly be perfect (not even close), however we still try, because we want to honor the Lord with our effort to do the right thing.
I think he just snapped cause Forrest took his belt and he is scared of Wanderlei and did anything in his power to NOT have to fight Wanderlei.