Obviously lots of media coverage today about the arrest of Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson, a lot of it sensationalistic and borderline ridiculous with little of it offering new facts surrounding the situation. We’re not going to play the exploitation game like the mainstream media, but we’ll update you on new and relevant information as it becomes available.

Still conflicting info on Rampage’s condition at the time of the arrest. The Long Beach Press Telegram reports that he posted bail (or presumably Dana White, who traveled to SoCal upon hearing the news, did) and was released. The arresting police department also report that he was cooperative during the process and say nothing to suggest that the whole thing wasn’t “by the book”:

Former UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson was released on $25,000 bail late Tuesday night, following his arrest Tuesday afternoon by Costa Mesa Police in Newport Beach.

The charismatic Jackson was arrested following a brief police pursuit where he allegedly evaded police following a traffic accident involving his Ford truck that has a mural of Jackson and his sponsors’ logos on the side panels.

Jackson’s court date is scheduled for August 15 at Harbor Justice Center in Laguna Niguel where he will face a felony evading charge, wreckless driving and hit and run. There were no injuries reported in the incidents.

According to Sgt. of Traffic Safety Bureau for Costa Mesa Police Department, Victor Bakkila, the 30-year-old Jackson “was cooperative with us from his arrest to him being released.”

Other reports–primarily celebrity gossip trash receptacle TMZ who lives to exploit situations like this–are maintaining that Rampage was ‘unfit for arrest’ and taken to a medical holding facility and/or an actual jail. Could be that the arresting cops made the correct decision that putting a big celebrity in a holding pen full of drunks and gang bangers wasn’t the most prudent move for anyone involved.

And while we’re at it, Baltimore Sun sportswriter Bill Ordine addresses the somewhat obvious point that the UFC got a bounce of good luck in last week’s Forrest Griffin title win over Rampage:

Last week, following the UFC light-heavyweight championship fight between defending title-holder Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and challenger Forrest Griffin, Griffin sent entreaties heavenward that the judges would see the fight his way. He had tried to keep Jackson, a slugger, off-balance and did dominate the second round pounding Jackson relentlessly while the two were on the floor.

“Please, please, please,” seemed to be Griffin’s prayer as he awaited the decision following a five-round bout.

It was answered with a unanimous decision that some observers thought could have gone the other way. Even Griffin said he wasn’t sure. “You really don’t know in the fight what’s happening,” he said. “You watch on TV, it’s a lot easier to tell what’s going on.”

Well, if Griffin got a little bit lucky that night — or at least avoided being unlucky — the UFC can be just as thankful that the decision went the way it did and the graduate of the University of Georgia is one its new champions. Jackson was just arrested in California for erratic driving in a police chase that included a number of collisions and with Jackson’s pick-up on the sidewalk. I can’t imagine why he thought he’s get away even if he evaded police at that moment — he has his face on the doors on both sides of the truck.

Also at the Baltimore Sun, the paper’s MMA “go to guy”Mark Chalifoux (who’s on a short list of best MMA bloggers around) puts it in perspective–it’ll hurt the UFC very little and Rampage will be able to bounce back from this unless there’s more to the story:

In an interesting twist to this story, Yahoo! Sports is reporting that Dana White flew to California to post Jackson’s bail. Seems excessive to me, but it’s good to see White taking a hands-on approach to prevent things from getting out of control. Officers did say Jackson wasn’t intoxicated at the time of arrest, so he’s either literally crazy or incredibly stupid.

The UFC dodged an incredible bullet here. If Jackson was injured or, God forbid, injured someone else, it would’ve been a public relations nightmare. Inexplicably, the entire sport of MMA would be on trial in the court of public opinion. Because the sport is in its infancy on the sports landscape, every incident like this is going to be magnified.

Jackson should be able to bounce back from this with little long-term damage. There are a number of athletes in mainstream sports who have done far worse things and are still competing. Of course, it’s unfortunate that this storyline has to shadow the biggest weekend of the year for the sport.

It’s also unfortunate that incidents like this will draw coverage away from athletes like Anderson Silva (whose Q&A is the post before this! Cheap plug!), but Rampage will bounce back from this. I would be shocked if he didn’t fight again before the end of the year unless there is far more to this story than it appears.

So that’s the situation as it stands, and while we’ll keep you updated on any relevant news that materializes on Rampage’s arrest we’ll leave the gawking and rubbernecking to bottom feeders like TMZ and turn our attention to the big weekend on tap for the sport.

UPDATE:

Dave Meltzer at The Wrestling Observer, who is as usually as reliable as it comes on MMA/wrestling stories, clarifies what happened somewhat. Apparently, Rampage was ‘medically unfit’ to be jailed in Orange County and was taken to the Costa Mesa city jail. What this seems to suggest is that they wanted a ‘lower profile’ jail for such a big celebrity as we suggested above.