UFC Japan: Has Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson Evolved Too Far?

In the sport of mixed martial arts we are constantly told that combatants are ever evolving, and in many cases this is far from true as grapplers continue to throw looping, straight armed swings at each other until one succumbs. In the case of Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson however, evolution has been a real process through his career and is recently costing him fights and fans. Beginning as a man obsessed with picking up his opponent and slamming him to the mat as many times as possible, Quinton then evolved a ground game like few others once he had slammed his opponents - led by brutal knees and elbows to the body, on top of this he added a dirty boxing game, then a devastating boxing skill set. Unfortunately in recent years, every single one of these abilities has decayed away from his game plan except for his boxing, and it is becoming tedious to watch, and predictable to fight against.

Since Quinton burst onto the major MMA scene against Kazushi Sakuraba in PRIDE FC he has attracted unparalleled media attention. An engaging personality with a self deprecating sense of humor, Rampage made no promises to grind out a win but simply came to put on a show. In his losing effort against the Sakuraba, Jackson slammed the Japanese legend from above the top rope to the mat multiple times before succumbing to the Gracie Hunter's superior submission game, but he had already found a fan following in this performance. Quinton followed this moral victory up with several wins on the PRIDE promotion's undercard against less than stellar fighters, before being matched against the declining but still frightening knockout artist, Igor Vovchanchyn. Vovchanchyn is a legend of the early era of MMA and despite being built for middleweight, spent the majority of his career fighting heavyweights and still having the power to knock them out while going backwards. In this match Quinton used his trademark slams, interspersed with great clinch work and a brutal body attack on the ground to stop the Ice Cold Ukrainian. Though the match provided some fantastic slams, it was Quinton's ground and pound that really took it's toll on Vovchanchyn.

Quinton's defining performances in PRIDE came against the powerful wrestler, Kevin Randleman, and the UFC representative in the PRIDE Middleweight Grand Prix, Chuck Liddell. Randleman was supposed to be a far superior wrestler, but Rampage stuffed his shots and from the clinch brutalized his opponent with punches and knees, knocking him down with a body shot and finishing him, once again, with his brutal ground and pound. Against Liddell, Quinton exposed the Ice Man's inability to deal with well rounded fighters (having spent the past few years fighting almost exclusively grapplers), Quinton mixed in big punches on the feet to make Liddell raise his hands, thwarting the Ice Man's legendary takedown defence. Once again this fight was stopped by a brutal and relentless ground assault as Quinton bored the Ice Man down with knees and elbows to the body before Liddell's corner conceded defeat. 4 years later, when he came to the UFC, Jackson was nowhere near the dynamic all-arounder that he had been in his PRIDE hayday, relying almost entirely on punching and punching alone.

Since moving to the UFC however, Jackson has looked less rounded with every appearance. It is not that Jackson can't wrestle anymore, as proven by his stuffing almost every take-down attempted against him by wrestling greats Dan Henderson and Matt Hamill, it's that he flat out refuses to use it offensively. Since his teaming with Juanito Ibarra, a boxing coach, Rampage has been more and more moving towards a one dimensional boxing offense. It is a testimony to the raw talent of Rampage that he can still win fights by walking forward and throwing either a left hook, right straight or a right straight, left hook as his corner directs him loud enough so that everyone in the arena knows what he is going to do. Even when he was getting thoroughly out-struck by Forest Griffin, a man whose weak punches and mediocre wrestling should never have given him trouble, Quinton refused to attempt any takedowns - instead remaining on the feet and swinging hooks when Forrest was almost never in range.

Formerly a ferocious ground and pounder who bored his opponents down, Quinton's UFC striking percentage reveals that only 13% of his strikes have come on the ground through recent years. This is a far cry from the man who knocked out Ikuhisa Minowa with a knee to the face from mount. Jackon's most recent performance, a title shot against Jon Jones, was suspected by most sensible critics to be a "gimme" match for the young champion. Rampage's modus operandi is to walk forward and throw hooks with his 73 inch reach, whereas Jon Jones is a powerful kicker with an 84 inch reach. Anyone who knew anything about the fight game knew that Rampage wouldn't be able to even touch Jones with his hooks unless he had some incredibly inventive gameplan to do so - and as was expected by this time, he did not. The match played out exactly as expected, with Rampage being ground down with long, biting kicks and punches, before being stopped for the first time since 2005, and choked out for the first time since his big break against Kazushi Sakuraba.

Quinton Jackson had gone full circle - from a one dimensional wrestler, to a brilliant clinch fighter, to one of the most devastating ground and pounders in the game, to fully rounded fighter, to one dimensional boxer. All that remains to be seen is if a) Ryan Bader is inexperienced enough to fall for the same two punches that Rampage has used since 2007, and b) if Rampage, at this stage in his career - seeming unmotivated and distracted - can change the rut his technique has been stuck in for almost 5 years.

Jack Slack now blogs at his brand new website www.fightsgoneby.com

He can also be found on Twitter @JackSlackMMA