Quinton Jackson

Pride Fighting Championships: 26 and 6'1"? Quinton Jackson: Yeah.

Pride:	205, officially?
Jackson:	Yep.
Pride:	Team Oyama.
Jackson:	Somethin' for ya' momma.
Pride:	I was thinking, Ali had the same experience and change as you, but he still talked the talked. In your interviews now, you're really low key.
Jackson:	I'm still myself. It's all about the way you interview me. That's all it is. If you watch my Japanese interviews, they are all boring. It's the way they interview me. I feel watch you're saying but I've still got to be me. I say what I want to say
Pride:	Your match with Silva was voted as the MMA match of the year, although it could have been the match of the century. Obviously, you came away disappointed but...
Jackson:	If that's the truth, I want my yellow card back. (laughing)
Pride:	It was a very dramatic fight.
Jackson:	I want my yellow card money back. I hope Wanderlei gets his, too. How are you going to give someone a yellow card for the fight of the year or the century? You make folks not want to fight.
Pride:	What injuries did you suffer?
Jackson:	I had a broken nose and stitches. That's it.
Pride:	How long did it take to heal?
Jackson:	I couldn't start sparring until after January 1st. I still didn't spar, though. I took time off.
Pride:	What effect did it have on you mentally?
Jackson:	I learned a good lesson. I was over confident. I wasn't nervous at all. Both times I fought Wanderlei, I haven't been nervous at all. The first time I fought him, I had already fought once that night and, for some reason, I wasn't nervous that I was going to fight again. This time, the second time, when I fought him, it was kind of weird because I had caught the Holy Ghost again, the day of the fight. It was kind of weird. It just took all my worries away and my nervousness. I was so confident that I was going to win. I was like, man, I've got this fight. I trained really hard and I knew I was going to beat him.
Pride:	Have you watched that fight?
Jackson:	I haven't had a chance. I wanted to watch it a while ago but I didn't have a chance. I haven't seen the last couple of PRIDEs.
Pride:	What did you do wrong? What did he do right? What did you take away from that fight?
Jackson:	I made some mistakes before the fight. That's what I could have done differently. I could have "did" what I "didn't do" before the fight. When I fought, I tried my best but from what my friend's and coaches said, he just caught me with one of those punches you don't see. That's what happened.
Pride:	Turning to this match, a lot of people think this could be the fight of the night. What do you see in Ninja?
Jackson:	Ninja is a good fighter. It's times like this when people need warm up fights. Even Ninja needed a warm up fight. Neither one of us are getting a warm up fight so we've both got to go out there and go for the gusto. We're both hungry. We both go knocked out in our last fights, although mine was a little more embarrassing than his.
Pride:	It wasn't embarrassing, man. I understand why you feel that way but people rave about that.
Jackson:	It's embarrassing when you are hanging on the ropes. So, we've both got some coming back to do. That's probably what you are going to see, two people out there going at it. He said he wanted to kill me and that's what he's supposed to say. Why would I want to go out there with emotions and get mad? I'm not going let anybody get me hyped up. Let him get mad. I'm going to stay calm and relax. The more you relax, the more energy you save.
Pride:	So, you don't think this one is going to last long?
Jackson:	I don't know, man. There's no predicting a fight. I just hope I come out on top. I'm going to go and give it my all, like I always do.
Pride:	Your style is to come out and strike and slam.
Jackson:	Yeah, but it's a short notice fight so I'm going to try and pace myself.
Pride:	How much notice did you have?
Jackson:	I had one-month notice. For as long as I was off, I needed at least 2 month. 2 months would have been fine. My girl, Yuki, came over and she was feeding me so well. I was just eating fast food before. This has shown me how important it is to eat right.
Pride:	You said last night that you don't like tournaments. Are you still going to be in the (Grand Prix) tournament?
Jackson:	If I win this fight, right? I don't know. I'm pretty sure that if I win, the tournament's next. It's weird how tournaments turn out sometimes. If it were more fair, somehow, like they were really drawing them, instead of people saying "I want to see this fight" or "I want to see that fight", it might be better. But for people to pick out who they want to fight, I think it's unfair. It's all about chance, like in a wrestling tournament. Even if I had a hard guy, it would still have been fair.