I don't believe anything he says at face value because most of what he says is ********.
Fair enough. I don't take the word of Rampage or any fighter/promotion as the gospel. At the same time I'm not gonna not believe what someone is saying just because I don't like them..
There's a difference between saying you are going to beat someone and then say "I'm retired and done with MMA and the UFC."
And A-Team not going well just proves the point IMHO. Rampage isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer.
The only way theres a difference is if your reading into both statements to suit your own agenda. In the real world though both are exactly the same thing, they are plans.. when things don't go exactly to plan or as described, they aren't called lies.. they're just.. well they're nothing. Failed plans if anything..
He's complaining about fighting wrestlers and guys who do nothing but hump his leg. Lyoto Machida was not a wrestler. Some of the top guys in his division are wrestlers so he can either get over it and learn to deal with wrestlers or quit. They gave him another title shot against Jon Jones. So what else can be done?
So what? His problems originated elsewhere with the UFC & as a result hes just venting all of his frustrations with fighting in the UFC.. for him one of which is fighting guys that want to put him on his back & grind out a win by trying to keep him pinned down.
Also for the record, Lyoto Machida is 1 fighter. That's 1 fight out of his last 5 wasn't against a wrestler.. I'm not saying I agree with Rampage at all because if you want to be near the top of the division you really need to mix things up alot more than he does & wrestling is only one aspect of that.. however based upon what I've read about Rampage, hes more interested in fighting guys that are there to really there to fight with him as opposed to guys that will give him a fast track to a title shot.. the Jon Jones title fight only really came about because of injuries to other fighters & the fact that he was really one of the divisions only credible choices even though he was only on a 2 fight winning streak.
UFC stood by him the whole time. They got him out of jail and they lawyered him up. What other league or promotion would've done that? Any other company would've likely distanced themselves from rampage after that.
Yeah they got him off. Exactly.
Even without the UFC's lawyers & Dana White's backing, he is capable of hiring his own lawyer himself & still would have got off because he was suffering from delirium when the incident happened, it wasn't drugs or alcohol it was a valid medical condition that caused his wreckless driving.
UFC works different from other promotions, they work like an NFL/Football Club type franchise. They'll do their own investigation into what has happened & they'll either back you or sack you. They won't just leave you to it.. especally if like Rampage you are still under contract & one of the promotions most valuable fighters.
Hmm.. I hear him utter the words
'they barely promote me' which clearly isn't the case given that he appeared on TUF twice & I believe a Primetime for the Evans fight as well.
However a few moments earlier hes talking about how he is promoted in the sense that what is shown makes people look at him a different way from who he really is. So assuming hes still talking along the same lines hes more than likely saying
'they barely promote me' the emphasis being on the word
me because he doesn't think they are promoting who he really is.