Posted by Jake Rossen/Sherdog.com
Retirement in prizefighting means nothing. The vast majority of athletes who walk away wind up coming back, spend years flopping like carp and eventually get dragged out a bloody mess. This might change somewhat in an era of bigger, better purses, or it may not. Floyd Mayweather has a mattress stuffed with $100 bills and "retired" in 2007. He fought this past weekend. Nobody is allergic to money.
On a blog post you have to be a registered member to view, Quinton Jackson huffed and puffed histrionically over perceived maltreatment by the UFC -- the organization that made him an American star -- implied it forced him into bouts he didn't want and punctuated it with the announcement that he was "done fighting."
"I'm hanging it up," he wrote. "I've been getting negative reviews from the dumba-- fans that don't pay my bills or put my kids though college."
Jackson is bitter over reaction to his being cast in Fox's "A-Team" remake, a movie that might be fun but is equally likely to be another in an assembly line of pig-slop flicks that get the 7-11 push, have a big opening weekend, then drop off the face of the Earth. UFC president Dana White had fun at Jackson's expense, pondering that Rashad Evans didn't have his eye on the Isaac the Bartender role; fans were predictably sour. They want their fighters to fight.
So Jackson, 31, is taking his chain and going home with it. We know he's not the most emotionally mature of athletes -- if you need a refresher course, Google "Jackson energy drink highway arrest" -- and he has spoken openly about hearing voices. If this is a man with concrete judgment, I am Muammar el-Qaddafi.
Jackson's claims of UFC's strong-arming might have merit. But whatever it has done, it's been in the service of a mutually profitable partnership. Without its promotional push, there is no "A-Team" movie and no opportunity to evolve beyond pugilism.
"The A-Team" opens June 11, 2010. If Jackson is serious about retirement, he's better off deciding June 12.
ESPN.com Mixed Martial Arts blog
