Former PRIDE and UFC champ ‘Rampage’ Jackson is looking to erase the memory of his last bad loss to Fedor Emelianenko in 2019.
Quinton “Rampage” Jackson was one of the most entertaining light heavyweights in the world during the early 2000 era of PRIDE FC. He was one of the few fighters to cross over into the UFC and hold up in the Octagon, winning the 205 pound championship in 2007 off Chuck Liddell.
But age comes for us all, and the 44-year-old “Rampage” hasn’t looked great over the past five years. His last fight against Fedor Emelianenko in 2019 was particularly rough to watch. Jackson came in overweight and didn’t look like he wanted to be in there. Interestingly enough, it’s the bad taste that fight left in Quinton’s mouth that has him looking to compete in combat sports again.
“No, man. I ain’t done,” Jackson told a TMZ Sports reporter. “I’m not happy with my performance in my last fight. I can’t leave MMA fans like that. Yeah, I’m going to leave this sport a little better.”
As for what is next, “Rampage” is still waiting for a boxing bout against Shannon Briggs to materialize. The two have been jawing at each other for years now, and for a hot minute it looked like Triller was going to set that match up.
“Like I said, I’m in talks with fighting Shannon [Briggs], finally,” Jackson said. “That fight has been almost a year in the making. I want to do some boxing before I retire.”
“I might do MMA, but I want to do boxing,” he added. “I’m getting up there. I’m 44 now, man. I’m getting up there. My knees, from wrestling … when you’re doing MMA, a lot of people want to take you down.”
“Rampage” also gave his opinion on Jon Jones’ much-hyped move up to heavyweight.
“No cap, Jon Jones is the best person I ever fought,” Jackson admitted. “I don’t think I could give him advice, he’s a better fighter than me, you know what I’m saying? I’m keeping it 100.”
“I don’t know about Jon Jones’ chin, there’s been rumors saying he don’t got a strong chin,” he added. “Heavyweights, man, they hit harder. But I feel like Jones is a smart fighter and it was really hard for me to hit him. He wouldn’t let me hit him.”
“I say his first heavyweight fight, he should do a warm-up,” Jackson said. “He shouldn’t go in there with the big boys. I think he should do a warm-up, maybe fight somebody at 230. You don’t wanna fight anybody at 265. That’s one thing I don’t like about the UFC, they don’t believe in giving people warm-ups … If you haven’t fought for a while or coming off an injury, you need a warm-up fight.”
Fortunately for Jon Jones, it’s looking more and more like the former UFC light heavyweight champion will be facing Stipe Miocic, who weighed in at 234 pounds for his last fight against Francis Ngannou. It’s certainly no warm-up fight though. Miocic is widely considered the second best heavyweight in the UFC after “The Predator.”