(Now *that’s* the smile of a savvy investor.)

There was a time, not long ago, when Quinton Jackson‘s only desire was gettin’ that belt back. Now he’s off chasing his cinematic whims, and the UFC is putting on a New Year’s card headlined by Rashad Evans vs. Thiago Silva. It’s a sad, sad state of affairs. But as many of us predicted, Rampage’s retirement won’t last forever. As he wrote on his website, in a blog post titled "Hate on dis":

That sounds like a challenge, homey! We won’t hate, but we do think it’s entertaining how predictable these disgruntled UFC stars can be. They leave the organization with a laundry list of reasons why they’ll never work for Dana White again, and they return once they realize that being a UFC fighter is a pretty sweet gig, and Hollywood can be a humiliating place, and they haven’t earned a paycheck in six months. Randy and Tito came crawling back, and Dan Henderson has to be the next one after Quinton.

Do you believe that Rampage is finishing out his UFC contract just to shut Rashad’s mouth? Sure, that’s probably part of it, but keep in mind that he doesn’t have any other film projects in the works besides Duel of Legends, which will be the fourth direct-to-DVD action flick Rampage has appeared in that Hector Echavarria was reponsible for writing, directing, and starring in, and that’s not even counting Confessions of a Pit Fighter, which Echavarria starred in but didn’t write/direct. (Echevarria is to low-budget movies about fighting as Woody Allen is to movies about nervous Jews: He’s gonna crank one out every ten months even though people have stopped caring, and he’s too lazy to find new actors for each one.) So, Rampage has a choice between continuing as Echavarria’s muse or re-focusing on the only thing he’s great at. If he hasn’t already figured out the answer to that question, he will soon.