Tito Ortiz and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson are making their promotional rounds for their much-hyped (and after the fact) fight at Bellator’s Pay-Per-View debut in November, so it’s only natural that they’d stir the pot by taking shots at their former promotion, the UFC, to gain some free publicity. However, in an interview with SI Now, Ortiz decided to take the pot, flip it over and then kick the contents of said pot all over our brand new carpet, as the second-highest earning fighter in UFC history compared his tenure with the UFC to one of history’s greatest ongoing crimes against humanity.
“I thought slavery was over a long time ago.”
Slavery, of course, isn’t over, as there are people still enslaved in other countries at this very moment, and they are forced against their will by horrible, evil men to work for no wages as their health deteriorates. What Ortiz should have probably said was that he, like millions of Americans, hated his boss and felt underpaid. But he didn’t and here we are.
Ortiz followed his brilliant comment up with another gem, although it obviously doesn’t hold a candle to comparing himself to the thousands of Africans stolen away from their homes, chained up and transported to another country, where they were forced to work for heinous men and women, and beaten or killed if they didn’t comply. Or maybe he meant any of the other terrible eras of slavery in world history. I’d hate to put words in his mouth.
“One of the biggest things now is bullying. And he’s one of the biggest bullies, I’d say, in the business. He’s a big bully.”
Yes, one of the biggest things now. That bullying craze just started popping up out of nowhere, and people now were like, “Heavens, this must stop.” Fortunately, Rampage was a little more direct in his own contempt for the UFC and, much more specifically, Dana White.
“He’s the type of guy that will force you into a fight after surgery, and if you don’t perform really well in the fight, or you lose, he’ll talk crap about you in the media,” said Jackson, who also once reigned as UFC light heavyweight champ. “Who wants to fight for a person like that, you know? Who wants to be forced into a fight as soon as you get done with surgery? Like, you’re not even comfortable enough to know if you can even fight yet. Or they’re going to extend your contract, so you’ll be stuck with them longer. It’s just bad, bad juju. It’s bad for your psyche. You don’t want to be around people like that.”
Again, I’m not sure that the word “forced” is appropriate here, when we’re talking about grown men making the decisions to fight for substantial amounts of money.
But this is about talking trash and getting people like me to freak out and write about the Bellator PPV main event. So, mission accomplished, Tito.
(H/T to Maggie Hendricks at Yahoo!)
