Former UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson was certainly a different breed of fighter when at his peak. Jackson was one of the biggest superstars in the UFC in its early days and shared the top stage with legends like Chuck Liddell, Tito Ortiz, and Wanderlei Silva.
A bodyslam TKO?!? đ€Ż#OnThisDay in 2002, Rampage Jackson proved he was on another level during his PRIDE run!
[ đ„ Take a deep dive into the PRIDE vault exclusively on @UFCFightPass ] pic.twitter.com/korRFFZApM
— UFC on This Day (@UFConThisDay) April 28, 2023
‘Rampage’ became a superstar in the sport of MMA with his eccentric personality and highlight-reel performances. A fighter who also captured the UFC gold but his fighting career after the UFC and his popularity outside the cage seems to have overshadowed what he did back in the day. Jackson began his MMA career on November 13th 1999a at a very young age of 22. His first fight was against Mike Pyle whom he ragged out the entire fight winning via unanimous decision.
After various impressive performances at PRIDE, Jackson finally got his call for the UFC in February 2007 where he impressively fought and defeated Marvin Eastman via knockout in the second round. Thanks to his performances at PRIDE, ‘Rampage’ was offered to fight for the light heavyweight title at UFC 71 against Chuck ‘The Iceman’ Liddell. Jackson didn’t disappoint as he knocked out Liddell in the very first round to get crowned as the 205lbs champion. After defending his belt once against Dan Henderson, Jackson soon lost the belt to Forest Griffin at UFC 86.
Rampage Jackson towards the end of his career
After losing his belt, Jackson went 4-1 in his next five UFC outings that earned him a title shot against young prodigy Jon ‘Bones’ Jones. After defeating Shogun Rua, Jones had become the youngest UFC champion in history, a record that till date isn’t broken. Jones as he has done throughout his career ran through Jackson for most of the fight before submitting him in round four.
“I made the most money I ever made fighting in the UFC. I did, you know. But, I didn’t make what I felt like I was owed but you know, I made a lot of money in the UFC.” Rampage said about his time in the UFC. After the loss Jackson shuffled his fighting career between UFC and Bellator. After securing a unanimous decision victory against Fabio Maldonado at UFC 186 in 2015, Rampage finally left the premier organization for good and finished his career with Bellator fighting a legend like Fedor Emelianenko in his last octagon appearance that resulted in a loss.
Interestingly Rampage Jackson hasn’t officially retired. And yes there is still a chance we see the 44-year-old re-enter the cage for one last time. On the possibilities of his comeback, Jackson had said âI’m not done. I’m not happy with my performance my last fight, I can’t leave the MMA fans like that.â
