King Green was back in the cage at UFC 332, and he brought former UFC champion and MMA legend Quinton “Rampage” Jackson with him in his corner. That didn’t save him from a hard night at the office: Esteban Ribovics knocked Green down multiple times in the first round, forcing a stoppage from the ref at 4:08.
Jackson clearly wasn’t enjoying the cageside view during Green’s fight and explained afterwards that he’s not a fan of playing the corner role.
“I don’t really corner,” Jackson told Nina Drama (via Happy Punch). “Bobby asked me to corner him and all that stuff, I was like, ‘Ah, I don’t wanna do all that stuff.’ But, he’s such a good guy, I didn’t want to say no.”
“Bobby’s an entertainer, he’s going to bring it no matter what,” he added. “It’s just, for me, he’s my boy, he’s like my brother. It just sucks seeing one of your boys get beat but it happens. It’s part of the job.”
While Green made it clear that he felt referee Herb Dean stopped his fight early, “Rampage” kept it real as they discussed the fight at an afterparty.
“You put on a show before you worry about your own safety,” Jackson argued. “We don’t think about the wear and tear that we have on our body. That’s what they be thinking about. Like, my brother, I wanted to see you win but that might have been a bad decision. What we don’t think about in fighting is that s–t adds up.”
“I don’t plan on living long!” Green replied. “Let me f–king go! I live life right now and today. I’m a real gangster, n—a. I look at death right in his face. I watching s–t like Dragon Ball Z, and they’re doing this [movement]. I’m doing s–t I see in the cartoon, but in real life!”
You gotta give Green credit for being such a gamer even in the face of overwhelming odds. But Jackson is right: the ref is there to save you from yourself. Green was doing nothing but taking more damage. If Dean hadn’t stepped in, Ribovics would have. And then maybe King wouldn’t have been out at the clubs following the fight. He might have been in the hospital.