...OH, ONE MORE THING - PLEASE BOOKMARK US & VISIT DAILY!
By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
After losing a title fight to Jon Jones last September, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson asked UFC President Dana White for a fight with Mauricio "Shogun" Rua in Japan. The two had fought once in Pride, with Shogun knocking Rampage out with soccer kicks, and it was a marquee fight that Jackson hoped to get.
However, Shogun was already booked against Dan Henderson in November, and his war with the Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champ wouldn't allow him to return by February. That led to Jackson almost not being a part of the Japan card, which then led to a fight with Ryan Bader, a loss to Bader, and a meltdown on Twitter and on HDNet this week.
Now, though, Jackson may just get his fight with Shogun, albeit in a very different locale. According to Lorenzo Fertitta, via Yahoo! Sports reported Kevin Iole, the UFC would like to put on a Rampage-Shogun bout this June in Brazil.
"He has one more fight on his contract and our position is that he's contractually obligated to take a fight and fulfill his obligation, just as he'd expect us to fulfill our obligation," Fertitta said.
"He is, to some extent, still a draw. An interesting fight we'd like to make, one we've talked about, would be him and Shogun. I think that would be an interesting fight. They're both coming off a loss, they have a history and they have both expressed interest in the fight in the past."
The fight would be the last on Rampage's contract, and he's made it clear this week that he wants this next fight to be his last in the UFC. Whether that's the fight that ends up getting made depends upon Jackson's recovery time from a knee injury suffered prior to his bout with Bader, and from there who knows how things would be presented come June.
Penick's Analysis: If that's the fight they make for his last bout, they're doing him much more of a kindness than he's been doing them this week. They'd be giving him the fight he wants, even though it's not one he deserves at this stage; especially if he's on his way out of the organization after this fight. He's come off as an ungrateful, spoiled, selfish, and delusional fighter in the last week, and yet they're not out-right releasing him or giving him an intentionally poor matchup. Still, if it's the fight they want to put together, it would be a marquee name fight, even with Rampage's recent history, and probably one he'd be favored to lose. Perhaps they think they can diminish his value further. Perhaps they think he can redeem himself. Whatever the reason, it's in interesting choice they'd like to go with.
[Mauricio "Shogun" Rua art by Grant Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
Updated with Lorenzo Fertitta's quotes
UPDATE #2: On Fuel TV's "UFC Tonight" program on Tuesday night, Ariel Helwani reported confirmation from Dana White that this will be the next fight for Rampage, it will be the last fight on his current UFC contract, and it will indeed by Rampage's final fight in the UFC. According to White, the sides will part ways following the Rampage-Shogun matchup.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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