(“I’m gonna puke…I’m gonna puke.”)
Following his UFC 139 victory over Kyle Kingsbury Saturday night, Stephan Bonnar wasted no time in planting the seed for his next fight. “The Ultimate Fighter 1″ runner-up, who has racked up a recent three-fight winning streak, told reporters that he would love a step up in competition.
“I’ve always wanted to fight [Quinton] ‘Rampage’ [Jackson],” Bonnar said. “You know, I’ve got a few wins now and maybe (I can) get a big name [next].”
Earlier in the week, “The American Psycho explained to Heavy.com that facing Jackson would be his “dream fight.”
“He’s good, he’s a big puncher, he’s tough. But he does have holes in his game,” Bonnar pointed out. “He’s really famous. ‘The A-Team’ movie, talk shows – everyone knows who he is. Fighting him, it’s going to be a huge fight. Forrest [Griffin] got a close win over him, [Keith] Jardine fought a good fight with him. I feel like I could fight him good.”
According to UFC president Dana White, Rampage is down for the match-up as well.
“Rampage texted me tonight and said he wants to fight him too,” White said at the post fight press conference. “I don’t know, we’ll see.”
If the fight does happen, and there’s no reason why it shouldn’t considering how most UFC fighters who call out an opponent usually get their wish, it will likely go down at UFC 144 since White told him following his disappointing UFC 135 loss to Jon Jones that he would be on the card.
The rumored UFC 144 fight card to date is as follows:
UFC 144
February 25, 2012
Saitama Super Arena
Saitama, Japan
Lightweight Championship Bout
Frankie Edgar vs. Ben Henderson*
Quinton Jackson vs. Stephan Bonnar*
Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Jake Shields
Yushin Okami vs. Tim Boetsch
Anthony Pettis vs. Joe Lauzon
Hatsu Hioki vs. Bart Palaszewski*
Cheick Kongo vs. Mark Hunt*
*Has not been confirmed by UFC.