Rampage Jackson Reveals That Bjorn Rebney Didn’t Really Pay For His Knee Procedure

Former UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton Jackson has experienced a small career resurgence since signing with Bellator in late 2013, defeating Joey Beltran, Christian M’ Pumbu, and most recently, former Strikeforce champion Muhammed Lawal with a close decision at the promotion’s inaugural pay-per-view (PPV) show on May 17.

“Rampage” attributed much of that success to a knee procedure that helped him regain some of the vigor he had during his insanely powerful Pride FC and UFC days. However, while former Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney billed “Rampage’s” surgery as a courtesy when he signed, the aging slugger told The Fight Nerd that he was actually forced to pay for the procedure in a backwards way:

“Actually to be honest, I actually gave myself the new knees. I thought that Bjorn paid for ‘em , but I got the bill after my fight. They took it out of my check, so yeah, I paid for my knees. If you go back and watch the footage and stuff, before my fight, I was saying like,  ‘Oh, they helped me with my knees,’ and stuff like that, but after my fight, I noticed it was taken out of my purse. So I didn’t throw them under the bus, but I didn’t say else anything about, ‘They fixed my knees,’ because they didn’t; actually I did.

After I got my check and I saw the deduction for the procedure, I said, ‘What’s this big deduction for? They were like, ‘Oh, for your knee procedure.’ It is what it is.”

Interesting. On the surface, it appears like an instance of Rebney being a bit dishonest, which may or may not have played a part in him being recently replaced by former Strikeforce head Scott Coker.

“Rampage” was originally thought to have a very close and friendly relationship with Rebney, but as we’ve learned about the Bellator founder, looks can be deceiving.

He was also originally thought to have released Bellator lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez from his contract to go fight with the UFC in 2012. But that ultimately lead to a long and bitter dispute that is only now being worked out, with Alvarez rumored to be making his way to the Octagon to square off with “Cowboy” Cerrone at UFC 178.

Is this just the latest in a series of backhanded dealings that ultimately lead to Rebney’s demise?