UFC 144: Can Fighting in Japan Again Save Rampage Jackson?

Remember "Slampage?"

He was the guy who was killing people in PRIDE. Heavy hands backed up with good wrestling, and a defensive submission game more or less structured entirely around grabbing you and slamming you through the mat until you let go.

That guy, that guy was pretty sweet.

He’s dead though. The MMA world hasn’t seen him in years, instead forced to endure his less motivated alter ego, one who was still good enough to win UFC gold, but has slipped to the point of having one foot out the door of the sport altogether.

The other foot might go, on Saturday night in Japan.

Rampage Jackson has accomplished as much as he can in MMA. He’s a legend of PRIDE, a former champion of the UFC’s toughest division and a man who has enough recognition outside of the sport to get endorsements and acting gigs once he hangs up the mitts.

He’s also fresh off a sound drubbing from a young champion that he’ll never get another crack at, and little disillusioned at the money he makes in MMA. Plus, he didn’t like that, as a star from his days fighting there, he had to fight just as hard with UFC brass to get a spot in the UFC 144 lineup.

He even went so far as to state that if he’d beaten Jon Jones, he might already be retired. If he wasn’t, he sure would be after appearing in Japan one final time, regardless of the outcome.

The thing is, people like Rampage. They like that he’s colorful, they like that he puts on a good show and they like that he displays a kill-or-be-killed mentality in the cage. They want him to be saved from his own malaise, to be saved from the self-imposed threat of being done with the sport.

The question then becomes: Can Japan save him?

He loves the fans there, he loves the people there and he loves the culture there. He’s getting a young buck that he matches up with incredibly well, and after fighting so hard to get on the card, it’s hard to envision him not being motivated. Is that enough to rekindle the flame in him?

It’s tough to say.

The breakdown in combat sports is often said to be far more mental than physical. You can train your body to do anything physically, but it’s a lot more work to train the mind. If a fighter doesn’t have his head right, he’s in a far worse place than if he’s banged up or battered physically.

Look at a guy like Chuck Liddell. Liddell no longer has the physical tools to compete in MMA, and had to be forced into retirement by the UFC. Mentally, he was still as game as anyone, but his body wouldn’t let him do it anymore.

His longtime foil, Randy Couture, retired in 2011. Physically, he could still take a punch, was in phenomenal shape and was hanging in there with the best in the world as he approached the age of 50. On the night he retired, he said his heart wasn’t in it anymore. His performance had confirmed it, and he looked no better than Liddell had in his retirement fight the previous year.

For Rampage, he’s closer to a Couture than a Liddell. He’s still physically dangerous, can eat strikes easily and is imposing when he trains with motivation. While he’s not nearing such a ripe age, he mimics Couture in that he doesn’t really want to fight that much, has accomplished a great deal and feels the pull of Hollywood and other ventures that can make him money without the punishment that comes with being a fighter.

That pretty much means that Japan is the last stand for Rampage Jackson. If he truly doesn’t want to be in this game any longer, he’ll know in Japan. If any place in the world is going to get him out of his funk, and get his head in a place where he sees himself going another few years, it's the Land of the Rising Sun.

All that’s left now is to see what happens on Saturday night.