Rampage Jackson needed to win a fight in court to even make it to UFC 186. Once there, Jackson proved he still has plenty left in the tank.
The former light heavyweight champion earned a unanimous-decision win over Fabio Maldonado at Saturday’s pay-per-view, flashing his trademark power and a promising amount of patience. It was a surprising turn given how cooked Jackson looked the last time he stepped onto the UFC stage. To most, his loss to Glover Teixeira two years ago signaled the end, that perhaps he’d hang it up after dropping three straight fights.
On Saturday, Jackson proved his undying self-confidence was correct.
Aggressive from the outset, Jackson was dominant early and never really wavered. He hit Maldonado with a series of power punches, fighting with an anger that would have caused a lesser fighter to fold. Maldonado was able to keep himself upright until the final bell, but there was no question about the victor when the scorecards were read off.
“Fabio is a boxer, and I like people who stand with me,” Jackson said, per Brett Okamoto of ESPN.com. “He did a good job. Respect. I trained to knock him out, and he’s got a chin of steel. I hit him with everything but the kitchen sink.”
Jackson has now picked up four consecutive wins since the loss to Teixeira, slowly moving his way back up the light heavyweight rankings. Of course, three of those wins came in a Bellator stint that nearly derailed Jackson’s return to the UFC.
The fighting promotion and its former top star are engaged in a high-profile legal battle that temporarily took the Jackson-Maldonado fight off of the UFC 186 card. Allowed to fight after earning a temporary injunction, he clearly relished at being back on the big stage.
“You guys can’t know how stressful [the legal fight with Bellator] was; I wanted to come here and fight in front of the Canadian fans,” Jackson said, per Daniel Austin of the Toronto Sun. “I had to fight here. I thought I was going to do better by leaving the UFC, and I’ll be the first to admit I was wrong. The UFC is the best.”
As for Jackson’s next step, that remains entirely unclear. He wants to continue fighting in UFC. Following Saturday’s win, the former champ made his intentions clear by seemingly calling out half the light heavyweight roster.
“Honestly, I want to come back and beat everybody that beat me,” Jackson told Mike Bohn and Matt Erickson of MMAJunkie.com. “I want to fight [Mauricio] ‘Shogun’ [Rua], Rashad [Evans], Glover [Teixeira], and make my way back up to Jon [Jones]. That’s the honest truth.”
Whether Jackson will get an opportunity to pull that off is another question entirely. Bellator still plans on continuing its suit to keep Jackson’s contract, a move that could force him to fight with the promotion against his will or retire. Jackson has not fought for Bellator since defeating Muhammed Lawal in May of last year.
“I think he’s definitely got some legal troubles ahead of him, so we’ll see how this thing plays out,” UFC President Dana White said, per Karim Zidan of SB Nation’s Bloody Elbow.
The case will undoubtedly help shape the future of the light heavyweight division in UFC. Jackson, though getting up there in age (he’s 36), showed he can dictate the terms of a high-profile bout on Saturday. The pace was largely slow, with Jackson’s fits of aggression coming at the perfect time against Maldonado, who really only looked strong in the second round.
It was the type of fight that puts the rest of the MMA world on notice. Jackson didn’t return just to cash a few checks on his way out the door. Had he been doing that, Bellator would have been a fine stage. The promotion lavished him with a huge contract and promoted him as a franchise face. Playing out the string and continuing to dominate lesser fighters at Bellator would have been a nice, quiet final chapter in his storied career.
Jackson has made it clear that he doesn’t want to walk away with a whimper. He’s determined to go out on his own terms, whether that is a meteoric rise to take Jon Jones’ championship or flat on his back.
Now it’s up to the courts to decide whether that will happen.
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