Quinton “Rampage” Jackson’s revival tour continued Saturday night with a win in the Bellator light heavyweight tournament championship.
Jackson beat Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal by decision in the three-round main event to capture that crown — and the resulting shot at light heavyweight champion Emanuel Newton.
But apparently Jackson doesn’t want that title shot.
Unprompted, he called for a rematch in his in-ring postfight interview, despite winning by unanimous decision.
“I’m not happy with my victory tonight guys,” Rampage said. “I wanted to knock King Mo out. Who wanna see King Mo get knocked out?”
Lawal and Jackson jawed a little in the ring, with Lawal claiming he actually won the fight. The crowd was fully behind Jackson, but that’s not a surprise since it was in Memphis, Tennessee, where Rampage is from.
But the real story is more complicated. Newton, you see, happens to be Jackson’s training partner under Antonio McKee. And it certainly looked like Rampage was dodging a fight with his friend.
You can bet Bellator will do whatever is best for the second-tier MMA promotion.
It will be interesting to see if Rampage is brought up in UFC conversations again in the not-too-distant future. Jackson lost to Jon Jones, Ryan Bader and Glover Teixeira in succession to close out his UFC career. But he’s put together three straight wins in Bellator now. His falling out with UFC president Dana White led to a deal with Bellator and TNA Wrestling, but maybe he’s back in good enough form to be a real contender in the light heavyweight division again.
He still appears to be a pretty big draw.
Follow Metro New York Sports Editor Mark Osborne on Twitter @MetroNYSports. He has a tremendous relationship with Dana White and is available for any light heavyweight contests.
