UFC's Dana White Had To Personally Ask Rampage Jackson To Honor His Contract

Photo by Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images.

Former UFC Light Heavyweight champion Quinton "Rampage" Jackson has made no secret of his frustration with the promotion in recent months. He's spoken openly of his desire to leave the promotion after completing the final fight on his contract and has even publicly asked to be released before completing that final fight.

Things got so out of hand that UFC president Dana White had to talk to Jackson one-on-one and request that Rampage honor his contract. White told assembled reporters at the UFC 149 post-fight media scrum all about it:

"Rampage loves us one minute and hates us the next, loves the sport one minute and hates it the next," White said. "I don't dislike or hate him. It's up to him. It's his life. It's not one of these things where I'm like, 'Oh, God, Rampage, don't do this.'

"It's Rampage's life. If you decide you don't want to be here anymore, we're not going to hold you down and keep you do it."

More from Dana White on Rampage plus audio of the media scrum after the jump...

More SBN coverage of UFC 153

Here's how White described the final conversation with Rampage:

"Me and Rampage had this conversation and he said, 'Cut me from my contract right now.' And I said, 'Dude, we've had your back every step of the way, we've honored every contract that we've ever had with you - honor yours.'

"He said, 'That's true. You're right. I will honor my contract.'"

Jackson agreed to face Glover Teixeira at UFC 153. Teixeira is a very dangerous but little-known UFC newcomer that no one else much wants to fight.

Here's the whole media scrum: