Headlined by a championship bout between flyweights Demetrious Johnson and John Dodson, UFC on Fox 6 features several fights with title implications.
In the lightweight division, former WEC stars Anthony Pettis and Donald Cerrone will face off in a matchup that could determine the next title challenger in the 155-pound division. Additionally, Erik Koch and Ricardo Lamas will meet at featherweight with a title shot potentially on the line.
While all six of the aforementioned fighters are competing in fights of extreme importance, they have an average age of 27 years, with none of them being more than 30 years old.
The losers of those three fights will take a step back, but they are all young enough to come back and contend again.
Instead, the fighter with the most to lose at UFC on Fox 6 is the fighter on the main card who probably has the smallest possibility of competing for a UFC championship in his following appearance.
Quinton Jackson has said his fight with Glover Teixeira on Saturday will be his last inside the Octagon (via UFC.com), but that doesn’t mean he has nothing to lose here. In fact, it means quite the opposite.
If “Rampage” does intend to continue fighting, there is a lot of money on the line in his fight with Teixeira, as organizations will lose a lot of interest in the former UFC champion should he lose for a third consecutive time.
Once he’s a free agent, Jackson might also realize the grass isn’t greener on the other side. And when he potentially does, “Rampage” won’t want the bridge back to the UFC to be completely burned.
With his recent openness about leaving the UFC, Jackson has lit that bridge on fire, but a win over Teixeira would give him a chance to put out the flames should he need to do so. If Jackson loses to Teixeira, the UFC would likely have little interest in welcoming him back to the Octagon.
Essentially, Jackson will be fighting for his relevancy on Saturday. Win, and “Rampage” could re-ignite fan interest, whether it be with the UFC or not. Lose, and there’s a good chance Jackson will fade away much like Fedor Emelianenko unfortunately did in his final fights.
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