Clubber Lang punished the Italian Stallion in Rocky III. He also saved lives as part of the A-Team. Nowadays, the guy that plays Mr. T, just punishes people for a living.
I was lucky enough to interview the UFC Light Heavyweight Champion of the World Jon “Bones” Jones and his opponent Quinton “Rampage” Jackson as they prepared for their title fight on September 24th at the Pepsi Center. Jon Jones is a stud. He is a well spoken, mild mannered, pretty much a well behaved dude. He is NOT what you would expect from a champion in a league that emphasizes putting your knee into another guys cheekbone as hard as possible. Jon Jones might be the champion in the 205-pound weight class for a long time, but he’s not who I want to tell you about.
I want to talk about Clubber Lang, Mr. T, the man they call Rampage Jackson. If you love the UFC, you surely saw Rampage star in the reality show, “The Ultimate Fighter”, and if you love Rampage Jackson, then you probably also went to the theatres to see “The A-Team”. I’ll admit it…I love the guy, but don’t tell him that! As I sat across from him prior to our interview he said this to me, “I like fans, I do, but I like female fans more than I like dudes. I mean, it just bothers me when men try and touch me. I am so used to beating dudes up, that I just can’t break the habit.” WOW. That is when you sort of swallow, and try and think of a new subject to talk about…I just agreed with him and acted like, I too, beat people up all the time after a long night in the studio. I just shook my head and said, “Yeah, I know what you mean…(swallow) Rampage.” And then waited for him to punch me in the mouth. He did not, but he didn’t laugh hysterically either. Remember the old Saturday Night Live episodes where Chris Farley interviews famous people about their movies? That’s kind of how this interview went, (but obviously you should judge for yourself as it will air all month long on Altitude) I was Chris Farley and he was Rampage Jackson. “Remember when you beat up um…um…Chuck Liddell…um…that was awesome.”
Rampage was everything that I expected, while Jon Jones was not. I’m not sure what that means for the fight coming up on that Saturday night in downtown Denver. It could mean that the 33-year-old Jackson is past his prime and is now in the business of making bold predictions and loud statements about how hard he’s going to hit Jones, or how much he’s going to slam him around in the cage. Or it could mean that the youth is now the cream of the crop, and that the 24-year-old Jones is the real deal, and a first round knockout is inevitable. Either way, I learned a couple of things from this episode of “One on One: UFC 135”, don’t let a soft spoken man fool you into thinking he is truly soft spoken, and don’t touch Rampage Jackson during a photo opportunity. You might end up like Balboa, on your back, laying on the canvass with Rampage standing over you saying, “I pity the fool.”
Catch the debut of this show on Altitude, August 1st at 10pm.
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