Rampage Jackson Coaching on Next Season of TUF - Confusion Ensues

by MMAEruption on May 28, 2009 8:58 AM EDT Comment 11 comments

As you may know, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson announced via Twitter that he will be one of the coaches on the next season of The Ultimate Fighter:

about to watch myself in the movie midnight meat train & packing my stuff to move to vegas to coach TUF!!

We'll find out in early June (maybe tonight on the Spike VGA's if we're lucky) who the other coach is but there are three possibilities that come to mind:

1) Lyoto Machida - Dana White said that Rampage will get the first shot at Machida's belt, so this would be an obvious choice. However, Machida's manager Ed Soares indicated to Sherdog that this is unlikely for now:

"I don’t think he’s going to be coaching [TUF]," Machida’s manager Ed Soares told the Sherdog Radio Network’s "Beatdown" show Wednesday. "There’s a lot of things in the works to be honest with you and things are already set in stone."

So to get Machida to coach and keep the LHW division from exploding in confusion, Dana might have to break out the almighty checkbook.

2) Rashad Evans - Given his intense rivalry with Rampage, Rashad would be an ideal choice. Their post-UFC 96 staredown combined with Rampage's intonation that Rashad ducked him equals bad blood, and bad blood gets the fans interested. Of course, this would mean we'd have to wait for Rampage to fight (and beat) Rashad before taking on Machida for the belt.

3) Shogun Rua - Shogun is obviously the dark horse here, as aside from the fact that he demolished Rampage in Pride, there's no good reason to put him on TUF. This is especially true since his English skills are fairly limited. However, he was at Zuffa's offices yesterday with a big smile on his face, so maybe he signed something. (Fight with Rashad?)
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While I am eager to see Rampage fight Machida, I also don't want to wait 6 months to see it happen. So what could happen here?

Machida makes his first title defense against Shogun?

Rashad coaches against Rampage on TUF and Rampage/Machida goes on hold indefinitely?

Forrest fights Machida if he beats Anderson Silva? (you never know!)

Any ideas folks?

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MMABay is saying it’s Rampage and Evans… but it’s mmabay, so..

by Nick Thomas on May 28, 2009 9:23 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Fighters Only is also reporting that it is Rampage vs. Evans. Source is close to Evans and apparently he will accept.

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by Leland Roling on May 28, 2009 9:27 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I figured this would happen. More so, I figured Machida wouldn’t be down for TUF. Better news, is that the belt won’t be on hold forever and we can see Machida in the ring again soon.

by kyfm621 on May 28, 2009 9:31 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Rampage is fighting Lyoto in september and then he’ll fight Rashad win or lose…

You see – Dana listens.

by mmalogic on May 28, 2009 9:35 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

So, Rampage could potentially get his ass kicked twice by the end of the year. I think he can take Evans, but I’m not holding out any hope for him figuring out Machida.

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by Leland Roling on May 28, 2009 9:39 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs