M&F athlete profile

hollywood
RAMPAGE In The A-Team, charismatic
UFC star Quinton Jackson
hopes to bust up some box office
By roy m. wallack
PHOTOS BY pavel ythjall

Dripping with equal parts sweat and adrenaline, the fighter throws
a flurry of punches, then leaps out of the cage and seizes a startled young
female onlooker. He envelops her in his 205 pounds of muscle and gently
pulls her head alongside his, setting them temple to temple. She’s speech-
less, eyes wide, as he gathers a handful of her long, perfectly coiffed white-
gold hair and tosses it sideways so it spills over the front of his shaved,
brown head.
“How do you think I look as a blond?” quips former UFC light heavy-
weight champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, who now resembles a
demented RuPaul in a windstorm.
Everybody cracks up — the photographer, the lighting technicians, the
sparring partners and, just a few beats later, the blonde. She’s at this early
April photo shoot-turned-training session at the Huntington Beach Ultimate
Training Center (California) because she’s the publicity agent assigned to
Jackson by 20th Century Fox, which just cast him in his first major movie.
In a flash she composes herself, smooths her hair and summons a radiant
smile that seems to scream: If this guy isn’t perfect for Hollywood, who is?

134 MUSCLE & FITNESS 08.10 muscleandfitness.com 135

 PROFILE PRO ATHLETE
Big guns, big personality. Arnold used them. The Rock
used them. Now, working from the same playbook is the
32-year-old Jackson, the colorful character (“Hey, who you
calling ‘colored?’” he sneers in mock anger) from the world
of mixed martial arts. Late last year he put aside his trade-
mark 8-pound neck chain, canceled a UFC fight, grew a
Mohawk and sat in makeup for three hours every day for
four months on a set in Vancouver, British Columbia, to
play Sgt. Bosco “B.A.” Baracus in The A-Team, an action-
adventure thriller that opened earlier this month.
“Pity the fool,” he growls, imitating the catchphrase
made famous by Mr. T, who clobbered Sylvester Stallone
in Rocky III 30 years ago before playing the good-guy
Baracus role in the original The A-Team, a campy, classic
TV series about four renegade U.S. Army Special Forces
fighters that ran from 1983 to 1987. Ironically, Jackson
never actually utters those three words in the remake,
although they’re clearly referenced on-screen by the tem-
porary tattoos he wears on his knuckles: “Pity” on his left
hand, “Fool” on his right.
“I grew up watching Mr. T — he’s an icon in the black
community — so I didn’t have to study much,” Jackson says.
Pity the fool who doubts Jackson’s confidence that he
If you can get your ass kicked in tight little
drawers in front of millions of people, you
can do anything. I was made for this role
➔ Rampage
shows off the
words that
made Mr. T
famous and two
hands that have
put more men
to sleep than
Ambien.
136 MUSCLE & FITNESS 08.10
I would end up wrestling each other in the finals and he’d
always win by one or two points, but the matches were so
epic that everybody would stop and watch. To make it even
better, we started choreographing the first half of the
match and seriously wrestled only the last two minutes.
We’d whisper some crazy moves to each other, then put on
a show like Hulk Hogan.”
In the middle of their match at the 1996 freestyle regional
finals, as the wild tumbling and gravity-defying positions
pushed the total score past an unbelievable 50 points, they
were stopped and forced to confide their act to an amused hadn’t yet learned to control the temper that earned him
referee, who then let them proceed. When Jackson gradu­ his childhood nickname “Rampage”), Jackson took Roberts
ated, he wanted to be a professional wrestler with WWE. up on an offer to join him in L.A. and test out the burgeon-
After a couple of years that included some college wres- ing mixed martial arts scene. He steadily moved up in the
tling, construction work and a felony assault charge (he MMA ranks from King of the Cage to Japan’s Pride
bonus content
on the web
To see behind-the-scenes
video footage and photos
from our shoot with
Rampage Jackson, visit
muscleandfitness.com
and click on
Bonus Content
can handle his first high-profile role, and hold his own
against heavyweight co-stars Jessica Biel and Academy
Award nominee Liam Neeson. Unbeknownst to many fight
fans, while Jackson was slamming MMA rivals such as
➔ In a reenactment of their high school wrestling days, Rampage and his good friend and
Chuck Liddell, Dan Henderson and Wanderlei Silva, he was business partner Dave Roberts (above) show off the entertainment skills that Jackson’s using
also honing his on-camera chops in the off-season. He once to help parlay a move from the steel cage to the silver screen.
played a deliveryman in an episode of King of Queens and
twice served as a team leader in The Ultimate Fighter real­
Location: H untington Beach Ultim ate traini ng Center
ity show on Spike TV.
h air: Merribell Anderson, m akeup: Ju ne Bri ckman
“If you can get your ass kicked in tight little drawers in
front of millions of people, you can do anything,” he says as
he grabs the photographer and shoves the barrel of a rub-
ber gun against his head. “I was made for this role. It’s my
destiny. God blessed me with entertainment skills.”
Pleasing the crowd was always one of Jackson’s talents.
As a 189-pound All-State wrestler at Raleigh-Egypt High
School in Memphis, Tennessee, Jackson literally acted out
most of his best matches, according to Dave Roberts, his
crosstown high-school rival, and now decade-long sparring
and business partner.
“He was always like this,” Roberts says. “Rampage and
muscleandfitness.com 137
 PROFILE PRO ATHLETE
➔ Is this a shot of one
guy trying to look actorly
or three guys trying to
look badass? From left:
Bradley Cooper, Jackson,
Sharlto Copley and
Liam Neeson
Fighting Championships and eventual-
ly to the UFC, establishing his rep as
the brutally strong competitor with a
quick wit and the heavy link chain
around his neck. As the wins piled up,
so did the magazine covers featuring
Jackson’s shirtless torso and the iconic
chain, a good-luck present from his lit-
tle brother that he has made his sym-
bol since high school.
Playing B.A. Baracus in The A-Team
meant trading his own trademark for
Mr. T’s: the iconic Mohawk. On this
April morning, his last day of promo
shoots for the movie before resuming
serious MMA training, Jackson can’t
wait to get rid of the strip of hair.
“I don’t want to look like Mr. T’s
love child anymore,” he says. “Don’t
138 MUSCLE & FITNESS 08.10
you think Will Smith got tired of peo-
ple calling him Muhammad Ali?”
When the makeup artists shave off
the ’hawk and sideburns, it seems to
lift a six-month weight off Jackson’s
shoulders. Grinning ear to ear, he
bounds into the cage for some grap-
pling and pad work with his own
A-team: Roberts, and his longtime known for
striking and conditioning coach Tiki his uncanny
Ghosn, the gym owner and a veteran
of several UFC fights himself. ability to
“This mofo trains me like Mr. mimic fighters,
Miyagi,” Jackson jokes, affecting a
Japanese accent: “‘You vacuum floor
ghosn calls
to stretch lower back; clean window out training
to practice reach for punching.’”
Known for his uncanny ability to
combinations
mimic fighters, Ghosn calls out — “Jab-cross-
combinations — “Jab-cross-elbow- elbow-knee!”—
ABOVE: DOUG CURRAN, COURTESY FOX STUDIOS
designed to
exploit the
weaknesses of
Rashad Evans,
JAckson’s
opponent
on May 29
PROFILE PRO ATHLETE
quinton
rampage’s “rampage”
workout jackson
Age: 32
Quinton Jackson trains six days a
Birthplace:
week, Monday through Saturday. He
Memphis, Tennessee
warms up with an easy 2–3-mile run,
and does two-a-day skill and condi-
Current residence:
tioning workouts that alternate Irvine, California
between grappling and striking, and Height: 6’1”
rotate between all MMA disciplines — Weight: 205 pounds
boxing, jiu-jitsu, Muay Thai, wrestling. Fight Record: 30–7
If he’s sore one day, he’ll take it easy
the next to recover. Striking days
focus on pad work, which typically
consists of five rounds of five minutes
each. He’ll swim for 20 minutes mid-
day or after his evening workout to
restore full-body flexibility. “Yes, black
people can swim,” Jackson says.
“I can do the breaststroke, but I can’t
slam dunk. Weird.”
Fridays are reserved for full-tilt
contact sparring, often with his strik-
ing and conditioning coach Tiki
Ghosn. Satur­days alternate between
easy recovery days and interval train-
ing to build Jackson’s VO2 max and
explosive endurance.
Naturally muscular and strong,
Jackson doesn’t enjoy weight train-
ing, and only occasionally does dead-
lifts, lunges and power cleans to
squats up until eight weeks before
a fight. “We try to get him to lift
more, but he hates it,” explains Dave
Roberts, his sparring and business ➔ Although
partner. “He has always had this brute he started his
strength and he gets functional fight career as
a wrestler,
strength from the workouts.” Rampage has
amassed 14
Monday & wednesday KOs in his 30
9 a.m.: Warm up with 2–3-mile run pro victories.
10 a.m.–12 p.m. and 7:30–9 p.m.:
Boxing, Muay Thai and wrestling

Tuesday & thursday
9 a.m.: Warm up with 2–3-mile run
10 a.m.–12 p.m. and 7:30–9 p.m.: Jiu-
jitsu and wrestling
Friday
Full-tilt MMA sparring
saturday
Either a recovery day with grappling
and easy running, or a hard two-hour
cardio workout including sta­dium
steps, sprints and a variety of dis-
tance, depending on how he feels
sunday
Off
knee!”— designed to exploit the
weaknesses of Rashad Evans,
Jackson’s opponent on May 29. Since
he lost some conditioning during
filming, there’s no time to waste.
The next day Jackson would fly to
Liverpool, England, where he now
does his serious prefight training
camps with Team Wolfslair.
“There are a lot of good boxers and
jiu-jitsu guys over there, and fewer
distractions,” he says. “Nobody recog-
nizes me.”
That may change after The A-Team
hits the screen. With a six-fight UFC
deal, and his and Roberts’ recent pur-
chase of a Gardena, California, gym
(from which to run Team Rampage),
Jackson isn’t ready for a complete
career change yet — “not until acting
money matches fighting money” —
but he has some clear goals in mind
when and if it does.
“I want to work with [director]
John Singleton,” he says. “And I want
to play the grape guy in the Fruit of
the Loom commercials.”
And, of course, someday he’d like
to meet Mr T., who reportedly turned
down a cameo in the remake. “That’d
be cool. I’d like to go head to head
with him — thumb wrestling or some-
thing. He’d probably beat me because
I suck at thumb wrestling.” M&F

140 MUSCLE & FITNESS 08.10