Rampage ready to reach full potential

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The premise of the reality series “The Ultimate Fighter” is that young, inexperienced fighters get to learn from battle-wise, veteran coaches.

And so when Mike Dolce was chosen to be on Season 7, he was excited by the opportunity to soak in the knowledge from coaches Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Forrest Griffin.

But what Dolce found when he landed on the show was a lot different than he expected.

He was picked for Jackson’s team and discovered quickly that Jackson’s reputation as a fun-loving, easy-going guy was accurate. But he also learned before long that Jackson didn’t offer a lot in the way of coaching and was getting by on pure natural ability.

“When I first met Quinton (during taping in February 2008), he was a nice guy, very jovial, but honestly, he was a little lazy,” Dolce said Thursday, minutes before a news conference at Nationwide Arena to promote Jackson’s UFC 96 main event Saturday against Keith Jardine.

“He was just a little lazy. He didn’t train very hard. He didn’t take his diet seriously. He really didn’t take the sport very seriously when I first met him. And it stayed that way all through the training camp for his fight with Forrest (on July 5 in Las Vegas at UFC 86).”

Jackson lost an excruciatingly close decision to Griffin that night, then went into a post-fight depression that culminated with him not eating, not sleeping and drinking only energy drinks for several days.

He was having issues with his trainer/manager, Juanito Ibarra, whom he suspected wasn’t dealing straight with him, and he had great difficulty overcoming the loss.

The cumulative effect overwhelmed him and he suffered from delirium when he led police on a wild chase in Costa Mesa, Calif., on July 15. Jackson pled guilty on Jan. 8 to a felony charge of evading police and a misdemeanor charge of reckless driving.

California Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals recognized the delirium, though, in accepting Jackson’s plea. Jackson was sentenced to 200 hours of community service, ordered to pay restitution to the persons whose vehicles he damaged and required to undergo mental health counseling.

If he complies, the felony will be dropped when he is sentenced, on Jan. 7, 2010. A district attorney spokeswoman noted that toxicology reports indicated that Jackson had no drugs or alcohol in his system at the time of the incident and that doctors who examined him believed he was delirious.

The fight with Jardine will be Jackson’s second since the loss to Griffin, but the first since his plea agreement. But after losing to Griffin, he signed a management contract with Wolfslair in Manchester, England, and has trained for each of his fights there.

He knocked out Wanderlei Silva in the first round of UFC 92 and is eager to produce a similar result on Saturday. As UFC president Dana White and Jardine were going back and forth at the news conference over Jardine’s reluctance to fight his close friend, light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans, should he win, Jackson provided a typically ligh-hearted moment.

“I feel bad for Jardine here,” Jackson said. “Dana said he’s going to make him fight his friend. I have friends I train with and I couldn’t see myself fighting them. I couldn’t see myself fighting the friends I train with.

“I like Jardine and I like Rashad, but Dana is right. This is mixed martial arts. This is a business as well as a sport.”

He then beamed and turned to Jardine, saying, “So I’m going to try to help you out, baby. I got your back.”

It was one of the few times Jackson cracked a smile on Thursday. He’s happier in his professional life and content with his personal life, but he’s not always the comedian that he was just a few months ago.

He suspected irregularities in his financial dealings with Ibarra and split with him not long after the loss to Griffin. He agreed to train at Wolfslair and signed a management deal with gym owners Anthony McGann and Lee Gwynn.

“He trusts those guys 100 percent and because he has that trust and doesn’t worry about things, he’s like a different person now,” Dolce said.

Jackson said it is a case of being able to focus on the things that are important in his fight career and not having to worry about where his money is going.

He never mentioned Ibarra by name, but made it clear he was unhappy with the relationship that gained notoriety for both. Jackson knocked out Chuck Liddell to win the UFC light heavyweight championship and then defeated Dan Henderson in a UFC vs. PRIDE title unification bout under Ibarra’s tutelage.

“I’m more focused, I’m training harder and I got rid of the negative influence around me,” Jackson said. “Without saying it in so many words, it’s good to have a good manager behind you so you don’t have to worry about him ripping you off or just being your friend so he can get the better of you.

“It’s easy to train when you don’t have to watch your money. … It’s a lot easier to train and it makes me more focused and amped up to fight.”

Ibarra said Thursday that he still loves Jackson and thinks about him frequently. He said he’d done nothing wrong or improper and said he’d like the chance to sit with Jackson and clear the air.

Ibarra said Jackson’s training camp in Big Bear, Calif., before the Griffin fight was the “worst ever,” though he didn’t want to dredge up painful details. But he did say it was difficult to get Jackson to work.

“Do you know how hard it is to get a 200-some-pound adult man out of bed and drag him out so he gets out and does his work and trains?” Ibarra said.

Ibarra agreed that there were negative influences around Jackson when they worked together, but he insisted he was not one of them. He said all he cared about was what was best for Jackson and said all of his decisions were guided by that principle.

His voice cracking at times, Ibarra said the split has been equally painful for him.

“He had a lot of people around him who were negative, but you can’t be by someone’s side 24 hours a day,” Ibarra said. “I put in 16, 17, 18, sometimes 20-hour days, but I can’t be with the man 24 hours of every day. People make choices in their lives and he did what he felt he had to do, but I never felt in my heart I hurt him in any way.

“I felt I was an asset to him as a friend, a trainer and a manager. I didn’t charge him ridiculous percentages. But in the sports business and the entertainment business, when you have stars who come from nothing and become successful, money changes things. Nine out of 10 of them are changed by the money. I always used to talk to Quinton and tell him to be that one out of 10 who wasn’t.”

Jackson faces a difficult fight against Jardine, who has wins over Griffin and Liddell, two of the biggest names in the light heavyweight division.

Dolce said Jackson has changed his life so much and he’s preparing so well now that he’s confident he’ll dominate the UFC’s deepest division for the next three years.

“He was only getting a miniscule percentage out of all that talent he has,” Dolce said. “What he accomplished (winning the UFC and PRIDE light heavyweight belts) was incredible when you think about the way he trained. He used to be a McDonald’s guy during training camp. He didn’t prepare himself like a professional. He’s just this incredibly gifted guy who got by on his talent.

“But I’m seeing the changes now. And when he’s right, when he’s focused and trained and prepared, he’s so good it’s scary.”

White said Thursday that Jackson will fight Evans for the light heavyweight title in the summer if he wins on Saturday; if he loses, that shot will go instead to Lyoto Machida.

Jackson said he’d rather fight Griffin instead of Evans in a bid to avenge a loss to a man he believes he’s better than, but he said he’d do what White asked. His relationship with White was cemented in his darkest hour in July, when White left Las Vegas almost immediately upon learning of Jackson’s arrest and flew to Orange County, Calif., to bail him out of prison.

Jackson said the UFC treats him entirely differently than he was while he was treated while in PRIDE and said he’s developed a bond with White that won’t be broken.

“I’m figuring things out,” Jackson said. “I’ve seen a lot of things and I’ve learned what to do and what not to do from watching what happened to other fighters in PRIDE. You know, PRIDE was a good organization, but certain people who worked there were bad people and made bad choices.

“PRIDE treated fighters bad. The UFC, it’s the exact opposite. The whole organization is good. It’s good energy. I can’t believe how good they treat the fighters because I’m coming from PRIDE.

“The president of PRIDE was a nice man,” Jackson said. “A lot went on under his nose that he didn’t know about, because he was so busy. Dana, you can come to him and talk to him and stuff and he’s accessible. It’s a whole different organization and makes you feel better. I’m happy to be with them.”