Sherdog’s Top 10: Trash Talkers

Quinton Jackson knows how to sell a fight. | Photo: D. Mandel/Sherdog.com

5. Quinton Jackson

Jackson’s propensity for talking trash is the main reason why multiple promotions still seek the veteran’s services in 2015, many years past his prime and his relevance as an elite light heavyweight. The man knows how to sell a fight and play on his well-earned name value, and that is an invaluable commodity in a sport where fan familiarity is precious and rare.

The 10th season of “The Ultimate Fighter,” which featured “Rampage” opposite Rashad Evans, was one of the highest-rated seasons in the show’s history. UFC 114, which featured the long-awaited matchup between the two, was one of the biggest sellers in the promotion’s history. It did more than a million buys on pay-per-view and set the record for a non-title fight. All of that was due to the trash-talking chemistry between Jackson and Evans, which included “Rampage” destroying a door in “The Ultimate Fighter” house and lacing every episode with quotable insults. Even the pre-fight conference call between the two was high-level theater.

Jackson created his own vocabulary of trash talk with promises that his “stank breath” would be too much for his opponents and even turned his attention from individual opponents to entire promotions. The Ultimate Fighting Championship felt his wrath after his ignominious exit in 2012, and UFC President Dana White himself was the recipient of more than a few pointed burns. Jackson’s mouth has always been one of his greatest assets, and it is the key to understanding both his marketability and his importance as one of the great light heavyweights in the sport’s history.

Number 4 » Even in a sport brimming from top to bottom with characters, there is nobody else quite like him. He is a natural trash talker with a propensity for speaking his mind, and like every other part of his game, his repertoire reflects his unique personality and way of looking at the world.