Even though he’s the higher ranked fighter, it appears the camp of Ovince St. Preux thinks a fight that makes sense would be to face Quinton “Rampage” Jackson.
Ariel Helwani reported on Tuesday’s UFC Tonight show that St. Preux’s coach, Joey Zonar, said they want Jackson next, and have a date, place and promotional idea.
They are looking for the fight on Aug. 8, when UFC returns to the state of Tennessee with a show in Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, with the idea of headlining and billing it the battle of Tennessee.
However, Helwani reported that Jackson’s camp said thanks, but no thanks.
St. Preux (18-6), who has won seven of his last eight fights, is currently ranked as the No. 7 contender in the UFC’s light heavyweight rankings. While ranked four spots higher than Jackson, Jackson is the bigger name star and a win would do more for St. Preux’s career than Jackson’s at this point. St. Preux is coming off a first round TKO victory over Patrick Cummins on the April 18 show in Newark, N.J. While he grew up in Miami, he played college football at the University of Tennessee and is still based out of Knoxville.
Jackson (36-11) grew up in Memphis. He returned to UFC, beating Fabio Maldonado this past Saturday night in Montreal, in fight that was off due to a court ruling until the Tuesday before the fight. Jackson needed an injunction against fighting overturned just four days before the fight to participate after he was pulled off the show.