Following his controversial split decision victory over Judo Olympic medalist Satoshi Ishii at the Bellator 157: Dynamite 2 this weekend, it’s time to start looking at who Quinton “Rampage” Jackson will fight next.
At the post-fight press conference, Rampage spoke about how a former rival of his, Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal wants to see him fight his own friend and former training partner, Tito Ortiz.
“‘King Mo’ wants me to fight my boy Tito. He must really not like Tito. King Mo told me that if I fight Tito, then he’ll fight Ishii, because I think that’ll be a good fight, King Mo vs. Ishii. Because they both fight the same. Just sayin’.”
Regarding a fight with Tito Ortiz, which was supposed to happen under the Bellator MMA banner, Rampage offered the following comments.
“Tito, we were supposed to fight,” Jackson said. “I really didn’t want to fight him then, but it’s my job to fight. If Tito wants to fight, I think we’ll come in and put on a good show. It’ll suck to knock my friend out, but I gotta get a knockout. I gotta get a knockout. I’ve gotta knock somebody out. I’ve gotta knock somebody out. If Tito gets in the cage with me, you know I’m gonna try to knock him out. It would suck to beat up one of my friends, but if Tito wants to do it, then we can do it. If not, I ain’t gonna cry.”
In conclusion, Jackson pointed out that the long layoff he just went through may have affected his performance, and claims he’ll be back in the gym within a week to start preparing for his next bout.
“What you guys don’t know about me, not only did I not fight for a year, but I didn’t train for a year,” Jackson said. “All I did was play video games, man. I was so depressed, I’m not gonna lie. I was so depressed, man, I was just sitting at home playing video games and drinking beer. That’s all I did for a whole year. You can’t be a professional athlete doing stuff like that.”
Watch the complete Bellator 157: Dynamite 2 post-fight press conference by clicking here.
H/T to MMAFighting.com for transcribing the above Quinton Jackson quotes.