Fresh off a unanimous decision win over Fabio Maldonado at UFC 186, it looks like Quinton "Rampage" Jackson has picked his next opponent.
Of the 11 losses to 10 different fighters Quinton Jackson has suffered in his career, no other outcome haunts him as much as his first-round knockout loss against Mauricio Rua in April 2005.
Quinton "Rampage" Jackson (36-11 MMA, 8-5 UFC) has expressed his wish to get a second opportunity to compete against Rua (22-10 MMA, 6-8 UFC) several times over the years after fighting injured in the first contest.
It's been over a decade since the two combatants first clashed under the now-inoperative PRIDE banner. However Jackson is still pursuing a rematch, in fact to the extent that he recently posted on his official Instagram account that Rua owes him a second fight.
"A lot of people asking who I wanna fight next.. I think Shogun owes me a rematch, I should have pulled out of our 1st fight but my pride wouldn't let me. I will never fight injured again, this loss still haunts me," Jackson captioned the photo.
The first meeting between Jackson and Mauricio "Shogun" Rua was a one-sided contest as far as the Brazilian mixed martial artist is concerned. Rua landed cleaner, more significant strikes in the early portion of the fight before he trapped Jackson in the corner of the ring unloading a heavy flurry of soccer kicks to the face to end the fight, MMA Junkie noted.
Jackson, who has not been stopped again by strikes in his 19 fights since he shared the PRIDE ring with "Shogun," wants a shot at revenge under the UFC banner. However, there are several hurdles standing in the way of his desired matchup.
Jackson's current contractual situation is the main obstacle. The 37-year-old beat Fabio Maldonado via decision at UFC 186 in his first UFC fight in more than two years. Before that he was part of Bellator, which according to him breached a contract by not disclosing pay-per-view numbers from his Bellator 120 bout against Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal.
Bellator, on the other hand believes Jackson breached when he negotiated with the UFC and signed a contract a December with the leading promotion.
A judge ruled Bellator had a reasonable chance of proving its claims in court granting an injunction against Jackson. The Viacom-owned promotion clearly won the first round of the legal fight. After winning a partial reversal, the former UFC champ then sought a dismissal in court. There's no timetable on the case for a resolution and therefore, Jackson's next fight LowKickMMA noted.
That being said, even if Jackson was cleared to compete, "Shogun" has his hands full in the form of a UFC 190 co-main event bout with Antonio Rogerio Nogueira on Aug. 1 in Rio de Janeiro.
If "Rampage" is cleared to fight in the Octagon in the coming months, he could possibly get his wish for revenge against Shogun Rua.
