Monday, May 28, 2007 | 6:09 a.m.
In the days leading to Saturday's Ultimate Fighting Championship showdown, headliner Quinton "Rampage" Jackson was complaining.
An established mixed martial arts star who made his name in Japan with the Pride fighting organization - yet a relative newcomer to the UFC - Jackson thought he was being rushed into a major championship bout.
It was bad timing, Jackson said, too soon to place him in the octagon against the UFC's most visible fighter.
"I would have done some things different," Jackson said during the buildup to UFC 71. "I would have let this black guy named Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson go through the UFC, walk through some folks a little bit, and every time he fought say, 'By the way, this is the guy who gave Chuck Liddell his last (behind) whooping.
"Watch him grow. Let the fans identify with him. Let him show who he is for two or three more fights. Make him feel welcome to the UFC. Put a little money his pocket. Then, boom, throw him in the fight with Chuck Liddell. He brought some new fans in, he's got the black folks behind him cheering him on.
"Right now, most people are like, 'Who is this guy?' "
Not anymore.
Jackson annihilated his own argument that he should have been further prepped and primed in the UFC by delivering a sensational first-round knockout of Liddell for the light heavyweight title Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
The victory came at an ideal place and time for Jackson to definitively answer the question "Who is this guy?" It came in front of a sellout, pro-Liddell crowd of 14,728 that generated a $4.3 million gate, a day after more than 3,000 fans attended the card's weigh-in at the MGM, the week Sports Illustrated placed the UFC on its cover for the first time, the month Liddell appeared on the cover of ESPN The Magazine, and amid an unprecedented amount of coverage on ESPN's SportsCenter.
It also justified the hard-line doctrine of UFC President Dana White that entails pitting his organization's biggest names against each other in championship fights whenever possible, rather than puffing up their records with "gimme" matches.
White never misses an opportunity to contrast his philosophy with that of boxing's leading promoters - who are increasingly becoming unwitting foils to White as media reports portray the UFC as hipper and more exciting than the stodgy sweet science.
"There's been a lot of heat lately between me and the boxing guys because of how I feel boxing has been run," White said after Saturday's card. "The reason this sport (MMA) is where it is right now is because these guys come out and fight. There's a lot of hype behind these fights and they live up to the hype. ...
"The most famous mixed martial artist in the world (got) knocked out in the first round. Chuck is not only the biggest superstar in MMA, he's a superstar in the sports world period."
Liddell (20-4) had vowed to avenge his 2003 loss to Jackson, but was denied when Jackson caught him with a crunching right hand to the jaw, then finished him off with a succession of hard shots to the face as Liddell lay on the mat.
"I didn't expect Chuck to go down, but bam, it was destiny," said Jackson (27-6), who can now look forward to another UFC megafight against Dan Henderson, who holds two championship belts in Pride, the formerly competing organization that the UFC bought out.
White said a match against Pride standout Wanderlei Silva could be next up for Liddell, who pronounced himself ready and willing to return to the octagon.
"I still love to fight, bro," he said.
Meanwhile, Jackson should expect to begin soaking up some of the media glare that had long been angled toward Liddell.
"I'm under the radar, baby," Jackson said last week. "That's the way I like it."
Again, not anymore - although Jackson will surely thrive in the spotlight, as a genuinely funny, outspoken personality. To wit (no pun intended):
- Jackson says he was inspired to enter mixed martial arts "so I could beat up folks without getting into trouble."
- Asked in one prefight interview what impressed him most about Liddell, Jackson said it was his impeccably groomed mohawk.
- Saturday night, when a reporter asked him to send a message to fans in Mexico, Jackson reminisced about how he would go out drinking in Mexico during his partying days only to get shaken down by the "federales." But now, Jackson said, it's all muy bien.
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