Quinton “Rampage” Jackson never got emotional after one of his own losses but he broke down in tears the night he saw a friend and teammate suffer a brutal defeat.
The former UFC light heavyweight champion recounted the emotional moment that led to the only time he remembered crying in the locker room and it’s all Dan Henderson’s fault. It was back at UFC 100 when Henderson went scorched earth on Michael Bisping with a devastating right hand that knocked out the future UFC middleweight king in one of the most jaw-dropping finishes of all time.
“I never cried, but me and Bisping, we was like brothers, especially back then,” Jackson revealed on his podcast. “We’re not as close as now because some bulls*** happened between our managers. Me, [Cheick] Kongo, and Bisping we was all like brothers.
“I never cried when I got knocked out, but when Bisping got knocked out the one time — it was [Dan Henderson] — I cried in the locker room! He got knocked out that bad, I felt really bad. I’m almost ashamed to say it.”
According to Jackson, he felt that perhaps he deserved some of the blame for the knockout because he was one of Bisping’s main teammates and training partners at the time.
Unfortunately, none of that mattered after Henderson uncorked his infamous “H-bomb” that detonated on Bisping’s chin.
“I felt like, at the time, maybe I didn’t help him good enough in training or something,” Jackson said. “It was something like that, and I just felt bad for him. I remember crying in the locker room like what the f*** is wrong with me. Why am I crying? I never cry, it’s weird.”
Henderson, who was serving as a guest on the podcast, couldn’t relate to Jackson’s pain after he simply responded “No” when asked if he ever cried watching one of his teammates suffer a loss.
While that knockout will always be remembered, Bisping eventually got his revenge while becoming UFC middleweight champion and then beating Henderson in their rematch in 2016.