Quinton Jackson: 'I really do think that I fought my last fight'

During an appearance on Monday's edition of The MMA Hour, longtime Pride, UFC and Bellator veteran Quinton Jackson said we might have seen the last of him in the cage.

The 37-year old "Rampage" Jackson alluded to his retirement throughout the interview, and said his decision to potentially hang up the gloves would come down to how the lawsuit played out between him and Viacom.

"I really do think that I fought my last fight," he told Ariel Helwani. "Because, you guys weren't in the mediation with me when Viacom said what they want for me to settle. I felt like it was lopsided and my attorney felt like it was lopsided. I don't think I can tell you [what it was], but I could sue them for a lot of money. Because I lost a lot of money. And they want to settle, I was like wow.

"I don't think I can tell you guys, but if I ever find out I can tell you, I'll put it out there. But I don't think I can."

Jackson last fought at UFC 186 in a catchweight fight against Fabio Maldonado in April. He won the fight via unanimous decision, making four in a row overall. He won the previously three fights under the Bellator banner, before defecting back to Zuffa. His return fight to the UFC — the first since 2013, when he unceremoniously parted ways — was under contention due to a lawsuit filed by Viacom for breach of contract. Bellator won its preliminary injunction against Jackson in the Burlington County Superior Court of New Jersey, which forced the UFC to replace Jackson on the card with Steve Bosse.

However, on the Tuesday the week of the April fight with Maldonado, a judge in the Superior Court of New Jersey's Appellate Division overturned Bellator's injuction against Jackson, enabling him to compete.

Now Jackson is on the sidelines waiting to see how things play out, though he says that he's leaning towards walking away from the game.

"This is the thing, people need to realize, I am not a manager, I am a fighter," he said. "And my manager is very good at what he does. Viacom breached their contract and they had 45 days to fix the breach. We gave them ninety something days, they didn't fix the breach so in my contract, I was now allowed to terminate my contract if Viacom didn't fix the breach. Because they promised movies, pro wrestling, reality shows...everybody saw what happened to Bjorn Rebney. He got canned. Scott Coker came in, the company was turned upside down and my contract got sh---ed on. That's all out there. That's common sense.

"So for some reason Viacom, they didn't want to fix things. So my manager terminated it, and he took everything to the UFC. And the UFC said yup, he's legal to sign, and Viacom didn't agree with the termination. So, I don't know if my manager missed one step going to the courts or whatnot, but they tried to put a hold on my fight. I went to the courts and I got that overturned and I fought. And I did that just for the fans."

Jackson said that he is training his 15-year old son to become a mixed martial artist, and that he'd be overseeing his career as it got started. Though he was tweeting on Saturday night that he would like to face both Ryan Bader and Rashad Evans again — and there has been talk about him and Mauricio Rua fighting in March — Jackson said he wasn't sure he'd ever step back in the cage again.

"Now I'm tied up and going to court and stuff like that, and I feel like they're just trying to tie me up so I don't fight," he said. "But at the end of the day, I've been thinking about this a long time. At the end of the day, I've won four fights in a row. I've done a lot in this sport, I've been fighting for 15 years. I love this sport. I'm thinking, Bellator cannot make me fight for them. So I'm thinking I may as just go ahead and retire."

The former UFC light heavyweight champion Jackson is 36-11 in his pro career.