Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, former UFC light heavyweight champion, has stopped speaking to his son Raja Jackson after Raja disrupted a KnokX Pro Wrestling match on August 23, 2025, in Los Angeles, violently attacking wrestler Stuart “Syko Stu” Smith. Raja, an amateur MMA fighter, interrupted Smith’s match against another opponent, slamming him to the mat and punching him over 20 times while he appeared unconscious, turning a scripted wrestling spot into a real assault. The incident, livestreamed on Kick, prompted an LAPD investigation and left Smith with serious injuries. Rampage called the act a dishonor to his name, expressing deep hurt while covering Raja’s legal fees.
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Rampage’s Pain and Frustration
Rampage shared his frustration on The Ariel Helwani Show.
“I don’t talk to Raja no more,” he said. “I talked to him, I heard his story, some other stuff, then learned a whole lot of stuff about it and everything. Raja’s wrong. He went against what I told him to do, and he hid the fact that he got wrote into a pro-wrestling story. Raja’s not a pro wrestler. He’s a fighter. He had no business in that ring.”
He felt Raja ignored his guidance.
“Everybody there was wrong,” Rampage said. “Yes, my son took it too far. He knows better. He knows he’s wrong for getting involved in a pro-wrestling match. He wasn’t supposed to do it. I told him he couldn’t even go to the gym for two weeks [after suffering a concussion in sparring].”
Rampage affirmed his role as a father.
“My job as a father is to still take care of my son because I still love him,” he said. “Even with how upset I am with my son, I still love him. But ever since he’s become an adult, he don’t listen to s*** I say. All I can do is be a father. Raja knows I keep it real. I’m not going to lie for him.”
Rampage explained the lead-up.
“He said, ‘Syko Stu is drunk and he hit me upside the head with a can and I didn’t know nothing about it,’” he said. “’He embarrassed me on my stream. I was scared to fight because I didn’t know if the other wrestlers were going to jump me. I know I wasn’t supposed to be fighting because of this concussion. I didn’t know, and I was really upset. The promoter told me I could get my get-back in the ring.’”
He clarified public perception.
“I think people got mad because they don’t understand pro wrestling,” Rampage said. “They didn’t know that they wrote Raja into the show. [People] thought he was a coward and snuck into the ring and beat the guy up while he was working. Raja said, ‘I’m going to be in character. I’m going to be live-streaming, and I’m going to f*** him up. They told me I could f*** him up.’”
Rampage called it a mistake.
“The whole thing was stupid,” he said. “Raja took it too far.”
He felt personally wounded.
“He dishonored my name,” Rampage said. “I’m not cutting him off forever. I just haven’t talked to him. I talked to him after the s*** happened, and he hid the fact that he did this s***, and he put my other kids in danger, based off what the other people are saying [threatening them online]. I just can’t talk to him right now.”
Rampage is handling legal matters.
“I need some time,” he said. “I’m dealing with his attorneys and all this s***. I’m very disappointed in Raja. I’m not a perfect parent, so I don’t know what the protocol is to stop talking to your son when he fing goes out there and hurts somebody. He put the guy in the fing hospital.”
Rampage held others accountable.
“Take some accountability,” he said of Smith. “Honestly, everybody was wrong. Raja was the most wrong. None of this s*** would have happened if ‘Syko Stu’ never hit my son on the back of the head with a fking can that they were drinking beer out of, and grabbed him by the fing neck to fing sell it. If that’s never happened, none of this s*** never happened.”
He criticized the promoters.
“The promoters were wrong for putting an outsider inside a motherfing pro-wrestling match,” Rampage said. “Everybody’s wrong. It’s the dumbest fing thing I’ve ever seen. A f***ing nightmare.”
Rampage suggested consequences.
“He should go to jail, not prison,” he said. “I think that he should do a little time, do a little community service, go to anger management class and therapy. It wasn’t attempted murder. He wasn’t trying to kill that guy. That’s my son. I know my son. Raja probably didn’t even know how bad he hurt that guy.”
Smith suffered severe injuries, including a fractured maxilla, lacerated lip, and lost teeth. He was hospitalized but released on August 31, 2025. A GoFundMe raised over $130,000 for his recovery.
The attack followed an earlier clash. Smith, mistaking Raja for a wrestler, hit him with a canned drink hours before the match. After apologizing, they agreed Raja would join the match for a “receipt,” a wrestling term for a retaliatory strike. Raja’s Kick stream comments, “I’m going to hit him as many times as I can,” suggest premeditation.
Rampage initially defended Raja, believing the attack was scripted. On a Kick stream with Sneako, he called Smith “stupid” for hitting Raja. After learning the truth, he apologized on X, saying, “I don’t condone my son’s actions AT ALL! Raja is a MMA fighter not a pro wrestler and had no business involved in an event like this.”
