Quinton “Rampage” Jackson made his return to Bellator just over a week ago in a questionable decision win over Satoshi Ishii, and after his return he called for some more exciting matchups for his next appearance in the organization.
“I need to be a promoter, man,” Jackson said in an interview with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour. “I need to start a promotion. If I was a promoter, man, I would be the best matchmaker. I would be putting on the most exciting fights. Take nothing away from Bellator, it’s cool. But I wouldn’t put a fighter like me against fighters like Ishii and guys who are gonna be fighting scared. He even said that he was scared. Fedor [Emelianenko] wouldn’t be scared with me. Matt Mitrione wouldn’t be scared to fight with me. Those would be like stand-up wars.”
Jackson gave further thoughts on both Emelianenko and Mitrione as possibilities, and especially believes a fight with Mitrione would end in an exciting finish.
“Fedor is one of the most gentlest giants you ever want to meet,” Jackson said. “I’ve got the utmost respect for him. But sometimes the fans probably need to see fights like that. Me and him, we’re both past our prime, I’m gonna be honest. We’re older and stuff like that. Those are the types of fights that maybe Bellator wants to put on, when guys get over a certain age, maybe we should fight each other.
“… I think I’d get Mitrione in like the first round. Y’all saw him get dropped. I don’t even know how he got out of that. I don’t know how he got out of that first round. He was lucky, Matt.”
Penick’s Analysis: Should Bellator bring Emelianenko in, a fight with Rampage would make perfect sense for them to book. Rampage-Mitrione also has plenty of Spike history for them to work with should Bellator want to go that route eventually. As to Jackson’s thoughts on matchmaking, they’re not new, as he’s complained about the fights he’s been getting for years. He never really tried to adapt his game to take on different types of competition, so when he gets matched up with guys like Ishii the results are predictable.
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