Former UFC champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson (36-11) returns after a one year layoff to face Satoshi Ishii (14-5-1) at Bellator: Dynamite 2, scheduled for June 24th in St. Louis.
Former UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson will return to fighting after more than a year away from the cage. Bellator MMA brought him back after a lawsuit settlement, and now it’s official: Rampage will return on June 24th against Satoshi Ishii, in the main event of Bellator: Dynamite 2, at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Missouri. ESPN’s Brett Okamoto reported the story on Tuesday night, while Bellator officials sent out the press release on Wednesday. The fight will be contested at a 215 lbs catchweight.
Jackson (36-11), last fought at UFC 186 in April 2015, when he defeated Fabio Maldonado via unanimous decision. The fight was preceded by a legal battle between the UFC and Bellator. The lawsuit filed by Bellator one month before the event claimed that Rampage still had fights left on his exclusive contract with the organization, therefore he should have been prevented from fighting for any other promotion. After an initial injunction was reversed by a New Jersey judge, Jackson was finally allowed to fight against Maldonado.
After his crushing defeat to Fedor Emelianenko back in 2011, Satoshi Ishii (14-5-1) made a decent effort to become a top heavyweight fighter. The Japanese Olympic gold medalist in judo was fighting mostly at IGF events and made an impressive 8-fight winning streak from 2012 to 2014. He defeated notable MMA veterans like Tim Sylvia, Pedro Rizzo, Kazuyuki Fujita, and Jeff Monson before suffering two straight TKO losses to Mirko Cro Cop. In 2015, he fought 3 times, successfully stopping William Penn (8-5) and Nick Rossborough (25-19-1), but experienced another heavy KO loss to Jiri Prochazka in the Rizin FF light heavyweight tournament in December. The Rampage fight will be a Bellator debut for the 29-year-old.
The Dynamite 2 event becomes the 2nd Bellator show to date to feature both MMA and kickboxing match-ups, this time with Bellator Kickboxing replacing GLORY. Last year’s inaugural card was headlined by Liam McGeary’s armbar win over Tito Ortiz, as well as a GLORY light heavyweight championship fight between Saulo Cavalari and Zack Mwekassa.