More UFC Legal Troubles Brewing? Bellator Says Rampage Jackson Still Under Contract With Them

Could the UFC be in court yet again?

By Jay Anderson /

The big news coming out of UFC Fight Night 58, aside from Lyoto Machida's devastating TKO of CB Dollaway, was the re-signing by the UFC of Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, a move that surprised many in the MMA world mainly because Rampage was believed to be under contract with Bellator MMA. Now, it's no secret that Jackson has not been happy with Bellator since Bjorn Rebney, the promotion's founder, was fired this past summer, and there was talk that perhaps this situation was similar to the one with Eddie Alvarez, where Bellator opted to let the fighter go after years of drama between him and the promotion, including a lot of legal wrangling. It seems, however, that such is not the case here, and there may in fact be more legal wrangling to come. According to a post by Scott Coker on his twitter and retweeted by Bellator MMA's official account,
Let us be clear that Quinton "Rampage" Jackson is under an exclusive contract with #BellatorMMA. We will protect our contractual rights
Dana White, for his part, replied only with a smiley face. So what's the story? Could there be murky legal waters ahead for the UFC once again? Did they poach a fighter (or try to) under contract with another organization? Well, according to a report on MMA Fighting, Jackson had requested Bellator provide pay-per-view numbers as contractually required for his fight against King Mo in May. The fighter has since claimed that they failed to do so, and exercised his right to terminate said contract as a result. This will be interesting. First and foremost, does the contract in fact allow for termination based off this alleged breach. Second, given the promotion was in a state of flux, who was the request to provide numbers made to, and who dropped the ball? It sounds as if this could be tied up in court for a while if Bellator opts to play hardball. And if that's the case, as with Eddie Alvarez not that long ago, Jackson could be stuck in limbo.