Rampage Jackson claims fighters often take a dive for money - "There's been fake fights in MMA"
Former UFC light-heavyweight Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson claims to know of fake fights in MMA.
While 'Rampage' has never heard of a UFC bout being fixed, he seemingly knows about other promotions having fake fights. According to Jackson, the entertainment-focused Japanese MMA promotion PRIDE, featuring pro-wrestlers, had some fake fights.
Going into the nuances of fight fixing, Jackson claimed that the fighter taking a dive isn't always aware that a knockout is coming his way. The former UFC title challenger also stated that the phenomenon is fairly common in pugilism.
"I know that there's been fake fights in MMA," Jackson said in a recent interview with Chris Van Vliet. "I know that... Say me and you fight and you say, 'Listen Rampage, I'm gonna give you $10 million to take a dive. I gotta look good though. I gotta really hit you. I'm like, 'I get hit all the time'. At the end you know that you're gonna hit me, I know that you're gonna hit me, but you know you're gonna knock me the f*** out. I'm just thinking, 'I'm gonna get hit then I gotta fall down'. Boxers do that shit all the time."
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Jake Paul's latest outing accused of being a fake fight
Jake Paul took on Tommy Fury at the Diriyah arena in Saudi Arabia on February 26. A day before the fight, an alleged script with a predetermined result for the bout went viral on social media.
As per the script, Fury would start having problems with his left eye early on, which would worsen as the fight progressed. Paul was supposed to batter the Englishman en route to landing a final-round knockdown which 'TNT' wouldn't be able to recover from.
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Skill Challenge, the promoter for Paul vs Fury, dismissed all rumors of the fight being fixed.
Fury eventually went on to edge Paul in a closely contested split decision. While 'The Problem Child' managed to land a knockdown in the final frame, it was too little too late and definitely not fight-ending.
Jake Paul's previous opponent Anderson Silva has also been accused of taking a dive in his decision loss against 'The Problem Child'.