In a recent interview with Tatame TV, UFC light heavyweight champ Maurício “Shogun” Rua (19-4) says the title shot was offered to Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, who turned down the fight, before being given to Jon Jones last Saturday night.
“Shogun” isn’t sure why Jackson declined the title shot, but it’s possible that six weeks wasn’t enough time for “Rampage” to prepare for the fight which happens on March 19 at UFC 128.
Jackson is already scheduled to Thiago Silva at UFC 130 on May 28, while Rua had been training to face Rashad Evans up until this past weekend when the former champ pulled out due to injury.
Both Rua and Jackson have already met once in their careers back in 2005 as part of the opening round of Pride’s Middleweight Grand Prix tournament. Rua earned a first round TKO (soccer kick) win over Jackson and would eventually go on to win the GP Final defeating Antônio Rogério Nogueira, Alistair Overeem, and Ricardo Arona along the way.
“The UFC thought in other alternatives, but it didn’t worked out. For some reason he (Jackson) didn’t accepted it”, Shogun said, talking about his upcoming fight against Jon Jones. “I’ll have to change my training because he’s a lot different from Rashad, much taller, and it’ll be a great challenge. He’s been surprising everybody in the UFC, defeated everybody with easy, and it’ll be a tough fight for me”, he stated.
If you understand Portuguese then check out the video interview with “Shogun” from Tatame TV after the jump
Click here to view the embedded video.