UFC 92 might have two title fights at the top of the card, but perhaps the most compelling fight that night will be a grudge match between Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and Wanderlei "The Axe Murderer" Silva. It's not a stretch to say that these two men hate each other...they have traded insults and smack talk for over 5 years. They have also traded fists twice before, with Silva picking up the KO win both times. Rampage feels he is a completely different fighter now, and the result of this fight will be very different. Obviously, Silva expects the same outcome as the first two fights. Their first two fights were both all-out wars, and this one should be no different. In advance of the big fight, I thought I'd lay out some of the history between the two men. It hasn't been pretty.

The Rampage you all see in the UFC today isn't quite the same guy that was in Pride back in the day. Back then, he was much more opinionated, disrepectful, and brash. He was still the joker and goofy guy he is today, but...he had a lot to say about a lot of people. Chute Boxe was one of Rampage's targets. Unsurprisingly, Wandy wasn't a big fan of Jackson insulting his camp, and a rivalry was born. Silva was the Pride Middleweight champion, picking up the belt in late 2001. After a victory over Igor Vovchanchyn at Pride 22, Rampage had picked up three straight Pride victories and figured he had earned a shot at the belt. Silva was suffering from a knee injury at the time and was unable to defend the belt (a claim Rampage disputed), so Rampage was given a fight with Kevin Randleman at Pride 25 instead, which turned into a number one contenders matchup. The aftermath of that fight (which Rampage won) is one of the most famous moments in Pride history (Rampage/Silva stuff starts at 9:08 of the video):

RandRamp - MyVideo

Pride had scheduled a Middleweight Grand Prix starting on August 10th, 2003, so they figured the score could possibly be settled there. In the lead up to the event, Rampage posted a few videos on his website that....well, see for yourself (both slightly NSFW due to language):

Wow. Rampage, why are you holding back? I wish you would tell us how you really feel.

So onto the GP. In Pride tournaments, the semis and finals were contested on the same night. Pride Final Conflict, November 9th, 2003. In the semis, Silva picked up a decision win over Hidehiko Yoshida. Rampage defeated Chuck Liddell by TKO. So the met in the final. Here's the fight, one of the best in Pride's history:



Silva picked up a KO win, but it was not without controversy. Rampage was very upset that the fight was stood up not long after he secured a takedown and was inflicting damage in Silva's guard. Jackson demanded a rematch immediately, this time for the belt. After his memorable victory over Ricardo Arona at Pride Critical Countdown 2004, Jackson was granted his wish.

Silva/Ramage 2 (full fight)

Again, Rampage felt he was robbed by a referee, due again to a quick standup. Ultimately, it didn't matter and Rampage was defeated again by Silva and Chute Boxe. Pride tried to capitalize on the Rampage/Chute Boxe hostility by scheduling Jackson against Chute Boxe members Murilo "Ninja" Rua and Mauricio "Shogun" Rua for his next two Pride fights. Jackson picked up a split-decision victory over Ninja, but was knocked out by Shogun. Chute Boxe wins again.

More animosity flared up between the two after another of Pride's most famous moments: Mark Coleman/Shogun Rua at Pride 30. Less than a minute into the fight, Shogun broke his arm in disgusting fashion. Coleman continued to punch Shogun, and even threw the referee out of the way to continue his assult. This enraged Chute Boxe, which led to one of the wildest (unsanctioned) brawls in MMA history. In the aftermath backstage...well, Silva sort of lost it. Coleman tried to apologize to Chute Boxe members, but Wandy came out of nowhere and started yelling at everyone in sight, including a surprised Rampage.

Here's the end of the aftermath backstage (Rampage enters at the 1:14 mark):

Pride went under after a few more months, and one of the best rivalries in MMA history seemed to have ended. Or had it? Jackson was signed by the UFC and went on to defeat Chuck Liddell for the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship at UFC 71. In the 15 months since his last fight in Pride, Rampage looked like he had shown much improvement in his game. Meanwhile, Silva had been upset in brutal fashion at Pride 34 by Dan Henderson for his Pride Middleweight belt at Pride 34, three months before Jackson won his belt. When Pride went under, the UFC wasted no time bringing Silva in to tangle with Chuck Liddell, a dream fight 5 years in the making. He also joined Xtreme Couture. Silva lost the Liddell fight, but had earned his place in the UFC in what was an absolute war.

At the press conference for UFC 75 before he defended his belt against Henderson, Rampage couldn't help but throw in a little something about Wanderlei :

Rampage says he knew Henderson was going to KO Wanderlei Silva because Henderson hits very hard and that "Silva's brains were still scrambled" from his KO loss to Cro Cop. Also says Wanderlei couldn't "juice" like he wanted. Says it was a great fight by Dan, but that it wasn't the same Wanderlei he fought.

In the leadup to Jackson's title defense against fellow Xtreme Couture member Forrest Griffin, the animosity between Jackson and Silva was brought up yet again:

Rampage:

I think that if I fought Wanderlei Silva in the UFC I would have beat him. Wanderlei was the Chuck Liddell of Pride. If you were beating Wanderlei on the ground, the referee's would stand you right up. It happened to me. It happened to other fighters that fought him.... Me and Silva don't even talk to each other. Silva is the type of guy that thinks everyone should be afraid of him. The way I react around him is different. I am not afraid of Wanderlei Silva. They call him 'The Axe Murder' because he destroys people in his fights. They threw him chumps and he murdered them. Look at his record of guys he fought. This guy is 'The Chump Murderer.' I speak my mind around him and he looks at me all crazy like I shouldn't be saying that. I think some of the referees took payoffs in Pride. In Japan, I promise you something was up.

Silva's response (in his usual awesome english):

I'm always watching out for the comments here (in the blog) and in PVT (portaldovaletudo.com.br). for my surprise i saw that someone changed my nickname from Axe Murderer to Chump Murderer, but what i have to say is that the nickname is only applied to one person because the only chump I fought was Quinton (Jackson). That's old history: "who gets beat forgets and but whoever get his ass kicked wants revenge". what i have to say is that this fight is gonna happen again soon, but IS GONNA BE HARD TO HANG HIM ON THE FENCES. i think it's strange for him to talk like this on the internet because he had a lot of opportunities to talk this to my face when we met in vegas. He said that i dont look to him eye-to-eye, off course I don't! I don't like him, i really dont! I think he's a chump and a idiot. We cant forget to say that he is a tough fighter but i think that fight can happen sooner than everybody imagine, cuz i dont know if he can win his fight against Forrest.

Rampage again:

"Wanderlei thinks everyone is scared of him, and I'm not!" Jackson continued to blast the Axe Murderer by saying, "Ask Wanderlei what the referee is going to do when he doesn't stand us up, when I'm whoopin' his ass on the ground, like they did in Japan? He's going to have a tough time hanging me over the cage (laughing) This dude is stupid. I hope they do stand us up in the Octagon and we'll see what happens."

Wandy at UFC 91, showing that sometimes words aren't necessary to get your point across:

The winner of this fight could possibly face the winner of Griffin/Evans (the main event that night) for the title at a future date. Rampage is coming into the fight as a bit of a question mark, due to his legal troubles and his changing of camps in the last few months. Silva is coming of a 48 second destruction of Keith Jardine, and will have Xtreme Couture in his corner. I'm sure the smack talk will intensify in the days leading up to the fight, and I'm also sure every bit of it will be entertaining. December 27th is going to be a quite a night.

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Posted by Tim Burke at 8:24 AM

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