Pound for Pound: Rampage Joins A-Team

After a couple of false starts and a few unconfirmed media reports, it now appears that Quinton “Rampage” Jackson really is a member of the “A-Team.” 

The former UFC light heavyweight champion is out of a scheduled fight with Rashad Evans that was to cap off the upcoming season of “The Ultimate Fighter” and will instead be in Vancouver, Canada (or somewhere movies can be made on the cheap) appearing as B.A. Baracus in the remake of the iconic ’80s TV show. 

Obviously, this is a mixed bag for MMA fans. While it stinks that “Rampage’s” fight with Evans will have to be rescheduled for some time in the distant future, we also have to admit that, deep down it’s somewhat gratifying to see one of our guys land what we assume will be a semi-leading role in a major Hollywood production. 

Now it’s up to Jackson not to screw it up. 

Mixed martial artists trying to make the jump to acting is obviously nothing new. Since the moment MMA first arrived in America, many athletes of the cage have also fancied themselves thespians.

Who could forget Tank Abbott’s cameo during the third season of "Friends"? Or Bas Rutten’s breakout role as Dakota Varley, ex-LAPD-officer-turned-power-boat-racer in 2004’s "The Eliminator"? Or Ken Shamrock’s uncredited appearance as "UFC Fighter No. 1" alongside Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe in "Virtuosity"?

It was easily the best virtual-reality serial killer film of 1995, people. 

OK, fine. So up to this point MMA's contributions to the motion picture industry haven't exactly been Oscar-worthy, but perhaps all that's about to change.

At the very least, it’s nice that we're finally starting to see MMA fighters land roles in films that might spend a few days in theaters instead of heading straight to video. 

This summer, MMA-friendly audiences thrilled as Don Frye’s moustache turned up in the Johnny Depp blockbuster “Public Enemies.”

As most fans already know, Randy Couture – one of the sport's most accomplished actors, when it comes to being in really bad films – is also set to appear as a featured member of writer-director Sylvester Stallone's huge ensemble cast in "The Expendables," due out next year.

Gina Carano has reportedly just been cast as the lead in an upcoming action flick from Oscar-award-winning director Steven Soderbergh. The film is called “Knockout” and, according to reports in Variety, will feature Carano as a girl from “the wrong side of the tracks” who uses her death-defying powers of ass kickery to defend good and punish evil. Or something like that. In any case, it doesn’t sound like much of a stretch for her. 

Even with all the above competition from other fighter-actors, Jackson’s role as Baracus will likely be the highest profile acting job ever undertaken by an MMA athlete. This is a long way from his small part in “Midnight Meat Train.” That’s a lot of pressure for a relatively unproven actor whose range up to this point has been limited to howling like wolf and cracking jokes about other people’s bad breath. 

Not to mention the fact “Rampage” has some pretty hefty combat boots to fill in taking over Baracus from Mr. T. There are some nice parallels here, sort of. T was originally discovered by Stallone while taking part in the “World’s Toughest Bouncer,” competition, which sounds like the 1980s version of how Jackson made the jump to movies. 

But anybody who spent any time in the ’80s is going to be watching “Rampage” closely, waiting for the slightest chance to point out that they know Mr. T, they watched Mr. T and you, Quinton Jackson, are no Mr. T. 

And let’s be honest here. There’s a good chance “Rampage” will be terrible in “The A-Team” unless his speaking parts are kept to a minimum. One must only refer to MMA’s previous acting resume to see that fighters don’t often make excellent actors. 

Make no mistake, I’m rooting for him to knock it out of the park in the “A-Team” movie. But if acting doesn’t work out, at least Jackson has a day job to fall back on.

Chad Dundas is a daily contributor to The Sporting News’ combat sports blog The Rumble and writes a weekly MMA column for Crave Online. He lives in Missoula, MT.