‘Rampage’ rollout

The most devoted mixed-martial arts fans know what’s coming tonight when Quinton “Rampage” Jackson of Irvine makes his Ultimate Fighting Championship debut.

“He’s aggressive, powerful, and nobody slams like ‘Rampage,’ ” UFC President Dana White said.

What Jackson also made clear over breakfast in downtown Los Angeles recently is that few fighters are capable of matching his humorous candor either.

Describing his life as a black man in an upscale Irvine neighborhood, Jackson said: “I know some of my neighbors are racist. They’ve called the cops on me for having dogs. Another time, I was gone on a long trip, and came home to see my grass was dying. I started walking around my front yard, looking at the sprinklers. Minutes later, a cop was at my door and said a neighbor reported a suspicious man was looking into people’s windows. That was me. ... “

The policemen knew the 6-foot-1, 205-pound Jackson.

So did UFC officials. Late last year, UFC purchased the circuit known as World Fighting Alliance, which Jackson had joined in May 2006.

A new MMA circuit televised by Showtime “was trying to buy me too, said they were going to blow me up like Mike Tyson, the way I should be promoted,” Jackson said. “They know I’m full of excitement.”

UFC retained Jackson, a light-heavyweight, and is positioning him for a rematch later this year with Chuck Liddell, the UFC champion who hasn’t lost a bout since 2003.

Jackson, 28, boasts a 2003 second-round technical knockout victory over Liddell, 37, in a grand prix event staged by PRIDE Fighting Championships.

Tonight, in the pay-per-view event UFC 67 at Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Jackson (25-6) has another rematch to concern himself with, against Marvin Eastman (13-6-1). Eastman defeated Jackson by decision in 2000.

“I’ve evolved,” Jackson said. “This is my show, my debut, my time to shine. I can’t see myself losing. I can beat him standing up, or on the ground.”

The card also includes the UFC debut of former PRIDE fighter and heavyweight Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic (21-4-2) in a bout against Eddie Sanchez (8-0), and the main event of middleweight champion Anderson Silva (17-4) defending his belt against Travis Lutter (12-3).

Jackson has this fight and one more in his UFC contract.

“We’re going to pump the [heck] out of him,” White said of his marketing plans for Jackson. “He’s popular among the hard-cores, but not our newer fans. Hopefully, he’ll win twice and fight Chuck toward the end of the year. I’ll probably sign him to a multi-fight deal before then.”

Jackson says he and Liddell will be paid “beaucoup bucks for this. I’ll be asking Dana to put six zeros behind a 10 on his check. It’s a $10-million fight. Each.

“It’ll be an interesting fight. As I’ve shown, Chuck could be on the receiving end of a [butt] whipping. A new champion is going to emerge.”

With that ahead, Jackson will be raising his children in Irvine. He said he moved there because he promised the parents of his wife, Yuki, that he would take her to “a safe place” in Southern California, “not Los Angeles.”

Yuki separated from “Rampage” last year, he said, soon after an April blood test confirmed he had fathered a 6-year-old son with a woman in Kentucky.

The boy, Raja, is one of the four children Jackson cares for in his Irvine home.

He has given his three boys, Diangelo, 8, Raja and Elijah, 1, the middle name of Rampage. His infant daughter is Naname Nakia ‘Page Jackson.

Jackson said he took his “Rampage” nickname as a youth by displaying a terrible temper. He said that temper has returned only once in the ring, when Ricardo Arona punched Jackson in his dislocated jaw in a 2004 fight.

Jackson responded by lifting Arona over his shoulders and slamming him to the canvas, ending the bout in the first round.