Prior to making his PRIDE debut against Kazushi Sakuraba in July 2001, Quinton Jackson said PRIDE executives offered to pay him a $2000 bonus if he lost by knockout or submission and did not tap.
Speaking with MMA Today before his UFC light heavyweight championship winning performance, Jackson said he signed to fight for $10,000, but alleged that PRIDE executives, whom he said "screwed" him over, offered $12,000 if he was finished in the ring by the Japanese star.
"I'm never the type of fighter that would lose for money," Jackson said. "I don't do that. But they told me, 'If you win this fight, you get $10,000.' But they told me -- these are like the two people from PRIDE who got fired recently, I don't know if the president of PRIDE knew about it -- but they told me themselves: 'If you lose by knockout or submission and you don't tap, you get $12,000.'
"I said, 'But what if I knock him out?' and they said 'You get $10,000.' Then I understood what was going on. This was my first time fighting in the big show in Japan and I learned sometimes they wanted the other guy to win."
After slamming the smaller Sakuraba several times and nearly lifting out of the ring over the top rope, Jackson, who took the fight on short notice, finally succumbed to Sakuraba after getting caught in a choke.
"I knew it was going to be tough for me to win that fight, so I went out there and gave it my best anyways to get my $10,000," Jackson said.