There were many promises of a big-fight announcement during Saturday night’s Bellator 170 broadcast, and the promotion didn’t disappoint. Ahead of the co-main event between Paul Daley and Derek Anderson, the headline to Bellator 175 was announced.
On March 31, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and “King” Mo Lawal will face off in a rematch of their controversial 2014 scrap:
The bout is a solid rerun of one of the promotion’s biggest rivalries to date. The two faced off at Bellator 120, the promotion’s ill-fated pay-per-view debut, in a fight that was widely panned for lacking action and the questionable outcome—a unanimous 29-28 decision for Jackson—but received praise for the out-of-the-cage action that included a contentious build-up and a hilarious, NSFW aftermath.
While 2017’s Bellator is very different than the tournament-driven, Bjorn Rebney-led promotion of 2014, Lawal and Jackson remain two of its biggest stars, and best fighters. Because of that, this fight is an interesting blend of actual high-level MMA action and old-fashioned “bad-blood” appeal.
It’s worth noting that Jackson vs. Lawal 2 is labeled as a heavyweight fight in promotional material, despite both men spending most of their careers in the light heavyweight division.
Lawal freely bounces back and forth between the two divisions in order to take the biggest fights available, most recently competing in an openweight tournament in Rizin FF. Jackson, meanwhile, has been steadily moving further and further away from 205 pounds—debuting in Bellator at 210 pounds, facing Fabio Maldonado at 215 pounds, and fighting Satoshi Ishii in a heavyweight bout.
While Lawal will likely continue to move between the heavyweight and light heavyweight divisions, this likely marks the official move to heavyweight for Rampage.
No other bouts have been announced for the card but expect more to surface over the coming weeks.
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