Quinton Jackson Interview - MMAWeekly.com

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UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton Jackson’s kryptonite comes in the form of former Chute Boxe teammates Wanderlei Silva and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. They are the only two fighters that he has lost to in his past 19 bouts. That’s a stretch that includes two wins over former UFC light heavyweight champ Chuck Liddell, former Pride middleweight and light heavyweight champ Dan Henderson, Matt Lindland, Ricardo Arona, Murilo “Ninja” Rua, and other top tier fighters.



He returns to the Octagon at UFC 86 in Las Vegas to defend his belt for the second time when he faces inaugural Ultimate Fighter winner and Season 7 coach Forrest Griffin.



One thing that stands out as the two prepare for Saturday’s title bout is Griffin’s choice of main training partner… Wanderlei Silva. With two dominating wins over the champ when they both fought under the Pride banner, Silva is sure to bring some helpful insights to Griffin.



The remaining question is whether or not Silva can transfer the kryptonite from his hands to Griffin’s. Jackson doesn’t seem to think so.



“I’m telling you, Forrest can train with the Pope, it ain’t going to help him. Wanderlei ain’t going to get in there and fight for him,” Jackson stated to MMAWeekly.com. “Forrest got to fight me for himself. I don’t care who he goes and trains with. He can go train with Sakuraba. He can go train with Marvin Eastman. He can go train with Shogun. He can train with anybody; they ain’t going to fight for him.”



As for his own preparations, once again training in Big Bear, Calif., Jackson has utilized many different sources to train for Griffin.



Calling on his connections from his stint as Griffin’s rival coach on The Ultimate Fighter, Jackson said that he trained with Season 7 competitors Mike Dolce, Jeremy May, and Gerald Harris, but due to how he thinks Griffin will fight him, he called on a lot more training partners than them.



“If I was Forrest how would I beat ‘Rampage’ Jackson?” he queried. The answer? “I would probably try to submit him. So I’ve worked a lot of submissions with a lot of (jiu-jitsu) black belts. I’ve got four different black belts in my camp. They’ve been helping me out a lot.



“The most important thing I did was spar with Cheick Kongo,” added Jackson, “and go with the black belts and wrestle with them and Gerald Harris and all the other good wrestlers that I got, my wrestling coach Zach Lyte. I’ve been preparing and training hard, getting my cardio on so it will be despicable!”



Having gone undefeated in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, at 3-0, and capturing the title along the way, there are a lot of expectations from outside sources put on Jackson in this fight. But none of that seems to be any greater than his expectations of himself, and he appears mentally, as well as physically, prepared.



“I perform well under pressure. Pressure is not an option. Any time you fight, it don’t matter. I don’t care if it’s for the championship or not. This ain’t got nothing to do with the belt. This is a fight. That’s the way I think,” said Jackson of the pressures to perform and he doesn’t plan on succumbing to them anytime soon.



“My belt is going to be with me for a long time. So I’m going to go and do everything I’ve got to do to keep my belt with me. Forrest is going to have a hard time taking my belt. I got to get mean and ugly and nasty.”

Source - - UFC 86: QUINTON JACKSON READ TO GET NASTY - MMA WEEKLY - Mixed Martial Arts & UFC News, Photos, Rankings & more

Video interview behind the link aswell.