TUF recap: Rampage gropes, Kimbo hopes and Marcus Jones proves he’s no baby, thank you very much

Just when I thought Quinton “Rampage” Jackson couldn’t turn the douche dial up any higher, on last night’s The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights episode he took it to 11 when he sexually assaulted a fighter from Team Rashad. That’s right, he reached out and grabbed Darrill Schoonover’s breast.

While it didn’t appear to be a “joke” based on Rashad Evans‘ pre-fight nipple-tweaking ritual, obviously Rampage thought it was just harmless fun picking on the less-than-buff Schoonover, whom he continues to torment  by calling him “Titties.” But the TUF house isn’t junior high and Rampage and Schoonover aren’t best buddies. And before you say, “Jeez, lighten up,” what Rampage did – and does in the house – is bullying and wrong, and last night’s grope was offensive in every way.

Okay, enough preaching. On with the show.

Finally, a TUF bout worth talking about. Marcus Jones, the soft-spoken 6-foot-six former NFL defensive end, pulled a slick armbar submission out of his hat to beat UFC vet Mike Wessel and hand Team Rampage its only win in eight attempts. The stand-up exchange prior to Jones’s takedown may not have been pretty – Wessel charged forward and winged looping punches and Jones smothered him in what Rampage called a Frankenstein-like style – but once on the ground Jones showed surprising agility for such a big man.

After the fight, coaches Rampage and Evans sat down with UFC president Dana White to decide the quarter-final match-ups, which I won’t go into now except to say that Jones was paired off against Schoonover, whom Rampage perceived to be the weak link among the winners. Evans was upset that White had allowed Rampage to choose Jones’s opponent, but you can’t blame him. It had little to do with throwing Rampage a bone and a whole lot about giving Jones the easiest possible fight in the quarter-finals.

White should do everything in his power to help Jones advance to the finals. He’s a decent fighter, certainly among the top two or three in the house if last night’s performance is any indication, and he talks like he’s asking to marry your daughter. Think about it – a physical monster who literally giggles with joy when he learns a new technique and who also says “please” and “thank you” and genuinely means it. Rampage might mock him for being like the main character in The Green Mile (another gigantic, polite black man), but just think how marketable that kind of fighter would be. He’s the anti-Brock Lesnar.

Oh yeah, and they also teased Kimbo Slice’s possible return to the cage. Yawn.