Wanderlei Silva wants his fourth fight against Quinton Jackson to happen in his hometown of Curitiba, in Brazil.
Wanderlei Silva is looking for a fourth fight against longtime rival, Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson. This time around, however, ‘The Axe Murderer’ wants the fight to be in his hometown of Curitiba, Brazil.
As Wanderlei mentioned before, he has been in talks with Bellator to bring the promotion to the Arena da Baixada soccer stadium. It’s the same venue that hosted UFC 198 back in 2016.
“I’m trying to bring my fight against Rampage to Arena da Baixada.” Wanderlei told Combate. “I want both Pitbull brothers (Patricky Freire and Patricio Freire) there as well, middleweight champion Rafael Carvalho and Goiti Yamauchi. Bellator really wants to come to Brazil and this Rampage fight came up, which can fill up a stadium by itself.
“I met the guys who work at Arena da Baixada when Fabricio Werdum fought there for the UFC. They’re very professional and are making it possible for Bellator to make the trip. It was a fantastic meeting. They said all I to do is warm up and show up, because they’ll do everything they can to make that happen.”
As for the fight against Rampage, Wanderlei – who knocked Jackson out twice in their Pride days – is excited to fight him one more time. He considers the last time – when Jackson knocked him out at UFC 92 – a lucky shot.
“Rampage’s name came up naturally. He looked at me funny during a recent event and I told Bellator to match him up with me. He’s the perfect opponent. I won twice, he won one time out of luck. There was no fight, he just landed one in my chin. I want to make things clear. There could not be a better debut for Bellator in Brazil than that.
“I want to show I’m better than him. Who doesn’t want to see that live? It’s MMA history. People from the entire world will watch that. Rampage will be knocked out again just like the first two times. I’m going to throw him over the cage, out of the Octagon.”
Wanderlei Silva has been out of competition since a unanimous decision loss to longtime rival, Chael Sonnen, at Bellator 180, in June 2017. The 41-year-old’s last win came in March 2013, when he knocked out Brian Stann at UFC on Fuel TV 8 in Japan.