http://www.fightopinion.com/2009/09/04/putting-the-pieces-of-the-puzzle-together-on-ufc-rampage-jackson/

Putting the pieces of the puzzle together on UFC & Rampage Jackson

By Zach Arnold | September 4, 2009

When reports surfaced that BJ Penn vs. Diego Sanchez was being moved to the Memphis event on December 12th, there was chatter that somehow this meant that UFC couldn’t get a network TV deal once again.

But what if the matchmaking move dealt with something far more serious?

You’ve seen the reports now claiming that Quinton “Rampage” Jackson will be filming the A-Team movie instead of fighting in front of home town fans against Rashad Evans on 12/12 in Memphis. If the reports are true, then Dana White’s frustration and anger in Portland over Rampage wanting to film the movie is completely and totally justified.

Since his arrival in UFC, something hasn’t totally clicked between Rampage and Zuffa. While Jackson has had some success, he hasn’t become that mega-superstar we were expecting. Chuck Liddell, Brock Lesnar, and Georges St. Pierre are all more popular than Jackson. The one upside for Jackson in filming the A-Team movie is that his name value will increase in the eyes of the general public. But that’s the only upside.

There are a lot of major downsides to this move. As a fight promoter, Dana White has invested a lot of time, energy, and money in pushing Jackson. I’ve criticized Zuffa’s tenacity in their push of Jackson on this site in the past, but I also recognize that this Fall was going to be the biggest push UFC was going to give Jackson yet. They set up their reality show around him fighting Rashad Evans and threw Kimbo Slice into the mix. The fight between the two men was set up perfectly for a ‘homecoming’ of sorts for Rampage in Memphis at the FedEx Forum, which is significantly bigger than the late Mid South Coliseum that Jackson used to watch wrestling taped at. If Rampage ends up picking the movie over UFC 107 in Memphis, it will be a move that costs him a lot. He will in essence be burning UFC by doing this, he will have wasted the time of a lot of people including Rashad Evans (who needs to bounce back after the Machida loss), and it will be a loss in terms of a fight with an opponent he can beat.

Steve Cofield asks why UFC is still going to Memphis if Rampage won’t fight on the card. The answer for this question is easy - it’s Memphis. Memphis is a town with a tremendous history for pro-wrestling and fighting. The crowd will be super-heated and will be 100% supportive of UFC.