Like many other fighters, it’s safe to say Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson wasn’t a fan of the UFC-Reebok deal.
Jackson: “Dana White Was Like, ‘You Can’t Be Sponsored By Reebok'”
In Dec. 2014, the UFC inked a deal with Reebok as their official apparel partner, meaning the end of UFC athletes representing sponsors on their clothes during fight week or in the fight itself. Former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jackson didn’t stick around the Octagon to see the changes made as a result of the UFC blocking his previous sponsorship with Reebok years before.
‘Rampage’ wanted to represent Reebok on his fight shorts but apparently didn’t get the green light to from Dana White and the UFC, creating a unraveling rift between the fighter and the promotion.
“UFC took my Reebok deal from me,” Jackson said on MightyCast. “So I was with Reebok and they wanted to sponsor me. I was doing commercials for them and doing, you know, they gave me like an offroad shoe. We was gonna do a whole big ordeal and they wanted to be on my shorts and stuff for UFC. Dana White was like, ‘You can’t be sponsored by Reebok, we don’t have a relationship with Reebok’.
“I was like, ‘You don’t get relationship with my other sponsors either…’ One of my sponsors had— Boost Mobile came over to UFC from me. I was like, look, you guys already in business with one of my sponsors, like, chill out, saying, ‘This ain’t got nothing to do with you… I’m an independent contractor, you guys can’t tell me what I can and can’t have on on my shorts’…. and Reebok was liking that. They was getting more press by not being able to be on my shorts. Then they think they would have gotten just by being on my shorts in the fight and stuff like that.”
‘Rampage’ continued.
“So they teamed up and Reebok didn’t do the deal with me. Next thing you know, the whole UFC is sponsored by Reebok. I didn’t get one cent.”
Jackson Believes In Karma
UFC veteran Jackson wasn’t the only fighter who was up in arms about the UFC-Reebok deal with many of his fellow fighters such as Vitor Belfort expressing their discern for the deal and the money they lose out on by not being able to have other sponsors on their fight gear.
All things must come to an end and they eventually did for the UFC and Reebok in 2021 with the UFC signing on for a new, slightly better contract with Venum.
“If you know me, if you ever done business with me, you know that I’ve never done a shady deal before in my life. Maybe some deals don’t work out, but it don’t work out for the both of us. And I believe in karma. And I was watching that Reebok deal play out, and it seems like it wasn’t a good deal because Reebok’s not there anymore,” Jackson added.
Rampage Paid How Much To Get The UFC Off His Back?
In the middle of a rocky relationship with the UFC, ‘Rampage’ jumped ship to fight for Bellator MMA while still under contract with the UFC. The light heavyweight fighter went 3-0 in Bellator after losing to Glover Teixeira in 2013 and made his final walk to the Octagon against Fabiano Maldonado in 2015 as he was facing legal trouble with the UFC.
Jackson reveals he paid the UFC a whopping $1.7M to get out of his UFC contract.
“I was like one of the only fighters to be on a contract with Bellator and UFC at the same time. I forgot. It was weird, I can’t remember exactly what happened, but when I left the UFC, because they took my Reebok deal. Before Reebok went into play, but I think I owe them one more fight on my contract or something. I was gonna get sued or something, but I had to buy myself out. I had to buy myself out of that UFC contract. I think it cost like 1.7 million or something. I can’t remember what it cost me out of that. I can’t remember.”
“With [UFC] pay-per-view, yeah I was smashing it,” Jackson regarding his pay in UFC vs. Bellator. But with Bellator, I can tell you this. Bellator paid me, purse wise, they paid me more than UFC paid me, though.
“I don’t think I would have got those big purse paydays in Bellator if I wasn’t in the UFC,” Jackson admitted.
Watch Quinton Jackson’s full interview with Demetrious Johnson below.
