Since Dominick Cruz alleged that Hans Molenkamp has been enforcing some questionable antics regarding his dealings with Monster Energy sponsorships, he’s gained support from many in the community. However, light heavyweight legend Quinton “Rampage” Jackson doesn’t feel it’s warranted.
A longtime Monster-sponsored athlete, Rampage shared his thoughts on the recent claims surrounding the company executive.
“Hans, he has that fighter spirit,” Jackson told MMA Junkie. “He’s there for fighters. I notice that about him. And sometimes, me and Hans, we don’t see eye-to-eye. Honestly, we don’t. Sometimes Hans and I don’t see eye-to-eye, and I can understand why people would get mad at him, but whenever he asks me, ‘Let’s do this post,’ and stuff like this, and I’m like, ‘Hans, I’m overweight right now; I don’t want to do this stuff right now.’ He’s like, ‘OK, man. I get it.’ He doesn’t say, ‘Do this post or you ain’t going to get no sponsorship.’
“You can ask people like Daniel Cormier, Jorge Masvidal – those fighters need to step up. Even Conor McGregor and Jon Jones. TJ Dillashaw, Juan Archuleta, these fighters need to come forward.”
Rampage Jackson went on to say he thinks “people are just hating” on Molenkamp.
Following his win over Casey Kenney at UFC 259, Cruz challenged Molenkamp to a charity MMA fight. Along with the challenge, the former two-time UFC champion claimed that Molenkamp has been requesting social media clout in exchange for sponsorship privileges.
Several fighters have come out in support of Cruz in the time since. One of the bigger stories as of late came from an ex-photographer for Monster, Courtney Hendo, who went into great detail about his dealings with Molenkamp and how he was “blackballed” by the man in question.
“Hans doesn’t even have the power to say, ‘You don’t get a contract if you don’t post this or do that,’” Rampage said. “I think he can vouch for you, but if you already got a Monster deal, he can’t just cancel your contract because you don’t do something for him. It doesn’t work that way. I just feel bad. It seems like too many people are chiming in, and I’m like, ‘How come nobody is telling the truth about Hans,’ that he isn’t like that?”
Monster is currently “looking in” to the situation regarding Molenkamp and according to Hendo, this isn’t the first time internal investigations have gone on.
As for Jackson, 42, he last stepped into the cage in December 2019 when he suffered a first-round knockout loss to Fedor Emelianenko. The fight was Rampage’s last on his Bellator contract and he is currently a free agent.