Rampage’s exit from UFC

[Bearknuckle]

I don’t remember it being much of an issue on the forums or the mma community.

but rampage did an interview a few months ago and he talked about how he fell out with the UFC because they were being shady.

At the time the UFC didnt have a sponsorship with reebok, when rampage wanted to walk out and advertise reeboks, they blocked him from doing it claiming they dont have a sponsorship deal with reebok. Yet he had deals with other sponsors that were ok with. Suddenly the ufc signs a deal directly with reebok and rampage is left hanging and didnt get paid for it.

then, he fought his last fight, the UFC paints the picture that he retired but he just wanted to leave the UFC. They didnt even give him an interview. Suddenly rampage is considered washed up by ufc and its fans. Then, rampage wins 3 fights in a row in bellator and then the UFC resigns him as the comeback of rampage, yet he never retired.

 

[Davidjacksonjones]

Rampage was an absolute legend and pleasure to watch back in the UFC. Part of my forum username is is to pay tribute to the OG

Also, I would not be surprised at all the UFC fucked him over by not paying him

 

[Royce's Gi]

I don’t remember it being much of an issue on the forums or the mma community.

but rampage did an interview a few months ago and he talked about how he fell out with the UFC because they were being shady.

At the time the UFC didnt have a sponsorship with reebok, when rampage wanted to walk out and advertise reeboks, they blocked him from doing it claiming they dont have a sponsorship deal with reebok. Yet he had deals with other sponsors that were ok with. Suddenly the ufc signs a deal directly with reebok and rampage is left hanging and didnt get paid for it.

then, he fought his last fight, the UFC paints the picture that he retired but he just wanted to leave the UFC. They didnt even give him an interview. Suddenly rampage is considered washed up by ufc and its fans. Then, rampage wins 3 fights in a row in bellator and then the UFC resigns him as the comeback of rampage, yet he never retired.

Sounds shady as f

They just didn't want to pay him

 

[dildos]

Maybe ufc was in the process of negotiating a Reebok sponsorship deal themselves? A fighters individual sponsorship with a brand vs the company sponsorship deal could perhaps be a conflict of interest?

 

[legatoblues]

I had forgotten about that 2015 fight. 1 off UFC fight, then back to Bellator barely a year later. I had always thought the modern UFC was strongly against single fight contracts. Anyone know what the go is with this one? I can't remember anything from it at the time.

 

[AmericanMMA]

I had forgotten about that 2015 fight. 1 off UFC fight, then back to Bellator barely a year later. I had always thought the modern UFC was strongly against single fight contracts. Anyone know what the go is with this one? I can't remember anything from it at the time.

it was a contract dispute with Bellator. They figured it out after the one UFC fight.

 

[Chubi]

Wow, I completely forgot about this part of Rampage's career with the 3 fights in Bellator and the comeback against Babonado.

 

[InThySight]

The UFC is run by men without honor; nothing new here. I've long since grown accustomed to it, but the nonchalant disregard of those that have sacrificed to make the UFC what is it is one of those things that still gets me.

 

[legatoblues]

it was a contract dispute with Bellator. They figured it out after the one UFC fight.

Thanks for the context. How did he get out of the UFC deal, do you know?

 

[TheTickG]

I don’t remember it being much of an issue on the forums or the mma community.

but rampage did an interview a few months ago and he talked about how he fell out with the UFC because they were being shady.

At the time the UFC didnt have a sponsorship with reebok, when rampage wanted to walk out and advertise reeboks, they blocked him from doing it claiming they dont have a sponsorship deal with reebok. Yet he had deals with other sponsors that were ok with. Suddenly the ufc signs a deal directly with reebok and rampage is left hanging and didnt get paid for it.

then, he fought his last fight, the UFC paints the picture that he retired but he just wanted to leave the UFC. They didnt even give him an interview. Suddenly rampage is considered washed up by ufc and its fans. Then, rampage wins 3 fights in a row in bellator and then the UFC resigns him as the comeback of rampage, yet he never retired.

Compared to who he was, he was kind of washed up.

Before he went to Bellator, he had a 6 fight streak that included 4 losses, a questionable win against Machida that even Rampage questioned, and the Hamill fight that he also won by split decision.

That six fight streak is by probably why it wasn't much of an issue on the forums when he left.

 

[mmacrisis]

There was plenty of talk. Was he wanting to act more, was he difficult to deal with, was he asking for too much money, was the UFC a bunch of a$$clowns.... the list goes on and on.

 

[AmericanMMA]

Thanks for the context. How did he get out of the UFC deal, do you know?

I don't recall the details. He had been with Bellator for awhile at that point and I think it was just the UFCs way of fucking over Bellator. If I remember correctly there was litigation and that UFC fight with Maldonado almost didn't happen or was cancled at one point.

 

[Shaolin Alan]

They jacked his Boost Mobile sponsorship as well.
https://www.mmamania.com/2017/1/30/...reebok-boost-mobile-sponsorships-bellator-mma

 

[Cobra 03]

Winning 3 in a row at Bellator, is kind of like Baseball star Mike Trout dropping down to AAA ball, and going 4-4. Nice, but who cares?

 

[HI SCOTT NEWMAN]

It was a big mess with Bellator involved. Bellator was starting to get better and better at that time and more people were tuning in, and Dana was getting salty as usual. But Coker soon put a stop to that by taking over from Bjorn and making Bellator boring and beyond dull and unwatchable. Not surprised to see it fold now.

 

[SeattleFightFan]

I don’t remember it being much of an issue on the forums or the mma community.

but rampage did an interview a few months ago and he talked about how he fell out with the UFC because they were being shady.

At the time the UFC didnt have a sponsorship with reebok, when rampage wanted to walk out and advertise reeboks, they blocked him from doing it claiming they dont have a sponsorship deal with reebok. Yet he had deals with other sponsors that were ok with. Suddenly the ufc signs a deal directly with reebok and rampage is left hanging and didnt get paid for it.

then, he fought his last fight, the UFC paints the picture that he retired but he just wanted to leave the UFC. They didnt even give him an interview. Suddenly rampage is considered washed up by ufc and its fans. Then, rampage wins 3 fights in a row in bellator and then the UFC resigns him as the comeback of rampage, yet he never retired.

No offense to you or Rampage, but if this thread is based off what you heard or read of Rampage's memory of those times.....I wouldn't trust it very far.

Yes he left the UFC and both parties were angry at each other. Dana shut him right the fuck up when Rampage used the ol "slave wages" term, and Dana produced evidence that he'd been paid over $17m (IIRC).

And no, the fans never forgot or even turned their backs on him. But yes of course MMA fans generally pay more attention to UFC than other orgs. His car accident burned more bridges with fans than anything UFC ever did.

PS I am in no way defending Dana, Zuffa or UFC here. They have eeked out profits at the fighters expense in so many ways - from likeness rights to sponsorship tax to no sponsors - that I find really gross. I'm just saying, Rampage's memory is both unreliable and biased.

 

[WaylonMercy5150]

He said that bellator didn't honor his contract and signed with the ufc. Coker sued him and the judge said he wasn't allowed to fight in the ufc, however this decision was overturned and he was ultimately allowed to fight one fight for the ufc. he then resolved his issues with bellator and returned to the company. I think originally he was involved in TNA wrestling which was on the same television channel but that fell apart and he wasn't paid for his two appearances. Bellator and TNA did do some cross promotion for a bit.

 

[Richard Fannin]

I'm just saying, Rampage's memory is both unreliable and biased.

Well, he wouldn't be the first UFC champion to claim to have been fucked over by the UFC.

Mark Coleman has a lot of stories about being screwed over by the UFC, and how PRIDE treated him much better, and that was back in the days too...
(If anyone is interested, I can post these stories)

I mean, I believe Mark, Rampage too to some degree, but that's also why I don't pay much attention when some fans complain that PRIDE was fucking fighters over and the UFC was on the level, you got as many people complaining about those 2 orgs.

There are very few high profile fighters who feel like they got a fair deal in their careers, UFC or PRIDE.
But newer fans of the sport just focus on PRIDE because "yakuza!!" even if it's much more complicated than they think, and act like mobsters didn't back the UFC and dirty money wasn't made there.

For instance, Hidehiko Yoshida was probably the Japanese fighter with the most yakuza connections, not because he was seeking them out, but because it's hard to turn them down when they're fans of yours...
Despite that, neither Yoshida nor KazNak were involved in shady-looking fights.

The 2 Judokas took so many beatings there, that one should wonder... if the yakuza could easily fix fights as they pleased, then why didn't they fix fights for Yoshida and Nakamura?
Why didn't PRIDE manipulate the events so their local pro-wreslters didn't constantly get dunked on by Brazilians? (who were often much bigger)

 

[SeattleFightFan]

Well, he wouldn't be the first UFC champion to claim to have been fucked over by the UFC.

Mark Coleman has a lot of stories about being screwed over by the UFC, and how PRIDE treated him much better, and that was back in the days too...
(If anyone is interested, I can post these stories)

I mean, I believe Mark, Rampage too to some degree, but that's also why I don't pay much attention when some fans complain that PRIDE was fucking fighters over and the UFC was on the level, you got as many people complaining about those 2 orgs.

There are very few high profile fighters who feel like they got a fair deal in their careers, UFC or PRIDE.
But newer fans of the sport just focus on PRIDE because "yakuza!!" even if it's much more complicated than they think, and act like mobsters didn't back the UFC and dirty money wasn't made there.

For instance, Hidehiko Yoshida was probably the Japanese fighter with the most yakuza connections, not because he was seeking them out, but because it's hard to turn them down when they're fans of yours...
Despite that, neither Yoshida nor KazNak were involved in shady-looking fights.

The 2 Judokas took so many beatings there, that one should wonder... if the yakuza could easily fix fights as they pleased, then why didn't they fix fights for Yoshida and Nakamura?
Why didn't PRIDE manipulate the events so their local pro-wreslters didn't constantly get dunked on by Brazilians? (who were often much bigger)

When you quoted me you skipped the whole "PS I am in no way defending Dana, Zuffa or UFC here." bit....But I mostly agree with most of your comments here. Cheers.

 

[the ambush]

Rampage should be in the hall of fame, at least one of his fights should be in the fight wing.