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[Cat--Smasher]

Mike Dolce sets the record straight about Rampage's accusations - Bloody Elbow

His professional relationships seem to be volatile and short in duration. So here, on the eve of Rampage's supposed last fight in the UFC, he's playing a game of "Who shall I put on the chopping block next?" Of late, he's called out the UFC, Chael Sonnen and most recently, his former nutritionist, Mike Dolce. In an interview with ESPN, he states,

I spoke to Mike today, and got his side of story.

Experimentation

What the experiment was, was how to trick a world class athlete to eat healthy, and throw away his less than professional diet. The experiment was psychological. How do I trick this guy into eating healthy when he throws a temper tantrum any time he has to eat a vegetable? I don't know why he brought me into this, though. He knows the work we did was amazing. There's a video out there where he talks about feeling the best and lightest he's ever felt on my plan. I was shocked and disappointed with what he said. When I first saw it, I thought, 'He's got to be telling a joke right now, because this is so far from the truth, so far from accurate.'

The Split

The lifestyle within the camp just didn't suit my philosophy. I only like to work with athletes that work with me 12 months out of the year. The problem is, with Quinton, he'd begrudgingly do what I said during training camp, but in between camps, he would just do whatever he wanted. That became harder and harder to work around. For the Rashad camp, he came in 8 weeks out at 251. His next camp, for the fight with Machida, he came in at 260 pounds.

I care about the guy. One of our last conversations was about his health, not about his performance. I wanted the guy to be healthy. I wanted him to be walking year round in the low 220s. That should be his ceiling. He should be at 10% body fat year round. He's a genetically gifted specimen, but life would go in a certain direction, and his weight would go far north of what it should have been. We spent a lot of time playing catch-up in these training camps. It wasn't fair to my other guys (Vitor Belfort, Thiago Alves, Johny Hendricks, Nik Lentz, etc) that couldn't get a fair amount of my time because I had made Rampage my priority. It's even more of a reason why his statements are just so ill-founded.

Possibility of future work together

My dance card is so full, I'm booked six months to a year in advance. I can say that after I left Quinton, after his victory against Matt Hamill, I always supported him. I always cheered for him, bought his PPVs, jumped up from my couch whenever he was throwing punches and looking like he had a chance to win. Unfortunately, he lost both fights after we parted ways. He missed weight for the first time in his career after I left. I still think he could be the light heavyweight champion of the world if he would just fill in those holes that I was desperately trying to get him to fill in during our work together. I'll still root for him and I'm still available if he ever has questions, but I'm so busy now. If he ever came to me to work together again, we would have to have a talk about the personal issue, first. In reality, I can only commit to so many athletes, and it's a very small group. I'm pretty much at my max now.

[trustkill]

Dolce sounds like a professional to me. Can't say the same for Quinton--such a loose cannon.

[mma #1 fan]

Originally Posted by trustkill

dolce sounds like a professional to me. Can't say the same for quinton--such a loose cannon.

indeed

[Rise]

Yeah somehow I'm more inclined to take Dolce's side of the story as being the truth here.

[1inthechamber]

Rampage has been on a "rampage" lately talking all kinds of shit out his ass. He just seems so mentally broken lately, idk wtf happened to him.

Wonder wtf he was telling Glover at the weigh ins.

[CapCee]

It seems as if he doesn't want those of us who actually liked him to miss him one bit. And he's doing a wonderful job making us wish he would just fade out.

[Y2JUBAE]

Rampage could be champ again if he filled those holes. But instead of learning to check a freaking leg kick, and a few other things, he would rather just complain about them.

I don't get it, the guy has hands of steel, strong as an ox and just refuses to evolve. Wasted talent.

[v3xi]

Originally Posted by Y2JUBAE

Rampage could be champ again if he filled those holes. But instead of learning to check a freaking leg kick, and a few other things, he would rather just complain about them.

I don't get it, the guy has hands of steel, strong as an ox and just refuses to evolve. Wasted talent.

Agreed.

He was champ and did defend. Had probably his best fight ever against Hendo where he showed skill in every part of MMA. He just likes fighting one way and rather take the lazy route most of the time.

[Fedorlei Gomipierre]

Rampage is his own biggest enemy.

Rampage is still relatively young and has a tremendous skillset, but he's pissing it away and has been regressing since the Forrest fight. If Rampage woke up one morning and took notice that championship caliber training takes alot more investment and committment and involves evolving as a mixed martial artist, I think he could still be a contender....

The problem is, Rampage has surrounded himself by yes-men for years who haven't pushed him to broaden his repertoire and is generally lazy, uninvolved and does not care to put world champion levels of work into developing his game and is complacent to just rely on his go-to skills(boxing).

Rampage's greatest problem isn't his diet, it's about his overall outlook on fighting. Nothing is ever his fault, he takes his skills for granted and doesn't invest enough into being a top tier fighter.

[W.Silva>C.Norris]

Originally Posted by Fedorlei Gomipierre

Rampage is his own biggest enemy.

Rampage is still relatively young and has a tremendous skillset, but he's pissing it away and has been regressing since the Forrest fight. If Rampage woke up one morning and took notice that championship caliber training takes alot more investment and committment and involves evolving as a mixed martial artist, I think he could still be a contender....

The problem is, Rampage has surrounded himself by yes-men for years who haven't pushed him to broaden his repertoire and is generally lazy, uninvolved and does not care to put world champion levels of work into developing his game and is complacent to just rely on his go-to skills(boxing).

Rampage's greatest problem isn't his diet, it's about his overall outlook on fighting. Nothing is ever his fault, he takes his skills for granted and doesn't invest enough into being a top tier fighter.

a few years ago, yes, Id say rampage could have righted his ship, and stayed competitive. Now though, Id say its game over. He's too far past the point where he could make other areas of his game dangerous enough to take opponents mind off his boxing.