Rampage Still Talking

Rampage Jackson posted more of his feelings on his resent split from the sport of MMA on his blog:

When I told Dana I did not want my belt back & that I just wanted to make money, it was around the time when they gave me Vanderlei & actually it was around the same time when my mind wasn’t right (my mind was at TRUCK status) & that’s the way I felt because I felt I had been robbed out of my belt. After the Jardine fight I did want my belt back because my family was so proud of me when I was champion & I want to make my family proud cause now I finally feel like my family cares about me & they accept me & this is what I’ve been wanting my whole childhood… for my family to like me. If I got to beat some ass for my family to like me, so be it. But now, I’m a grown man & I’ll be damned if anybody disrespects me. I’m not having it, it’s not happening!"

On the one hand, you get the sense with the talk of “all the UFC had to do” that there is room for reconciliation. And given that Rampage’s dispute lies with being insulted, a repentant Dana White could make amends in a more substantive way this time. On the other hand, there are undertones of stubbornness here that are impossible to ignore, both from White and Rampage. Either the Cold War will fizzle out quickly or it’s just getting started.
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I’d also like to point out that Dana White, as a friend of Rampage, should have been more aware of how acutely Rampage’s emotions can be swung. To exacerbate the situation twice over and then follow it up by suggesting Rampage is “acting like a baby” is just doubling down on what helped cause the problems in the first place.