If the final fight of his illustrious career was at UFC on Fox 6, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson did not get the sendoff that he was hoping for. The former light heavyweight champion was defeated by Glover Teixeira on Saturday night.
Teixeira has wanted this fight with Jackson for a long time. It was supposed to happen last October, but an injury to Jackson forced him to pull out of the match at UFC 153. Teixeira took a replacement fight against Fabio Maldonado on that show, winning by TKO after doctors stopped it.
One of the upcoming light heavyweights in UFC, Teixeira knows that his time is limited and he wants to make a name for himself as soon as he can. He entered UFC late, as this was just his third fight with the company and he is already 33 years old.
Regardless of his age, Teixeira is doing all he can to make sure that Dana White and the fans know who he is. Too often we see fighters come to UFC who are too timid to challenge big-name stars right out of the gate for whatever reason.
When you are a fighter like Teixeira, whose potential is limited because of his age, you need to do what you can as soon as you can. UFC has these fighters do interviews after fights trying to get them to call people out. Teixeira did exactly what he was supposed to, and he got the fight he wanted.
For Jackson, his career has come to a screeching halt. He looked like he was back on track two years ago, defeating Lyoto Machida (albeit in a controversial decision) and Matt Hamill in back-to-back fights to earn a title shot against Jon Jones at UFC 135.
That would be as good as things get for Jackson, as Jones methodically picked him apart before getting him to submit in the fourth round. He followed that up with a lopsided unanimous decision loss to Ryan Bader at UFC 144.
Even though he was one of the biggest stars in the sport for a long time, Jackson is clearly just a shell of his former self. It’s an unfortunate ending for a truly charismatic superstar.
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