UFC 130 Fight Card: Why Rampage Jackson Has the Most To Lose Saturday Night

Nick CaronMay 27, 2011

The UFC 130 fight card is one that won’t bring anywhere near as much attention as UFC 129 did, but there is still a good amount of drama to be had and jockeying for rankings to be done.

The scheduled main event of Frankie Edgar vs. Gray Maynard would have certainly helped the buyrate for this pay-per-view, though the new main event of Quinton “Rampage” Jackson vs. Matt Hamill may end up actually being a more important fight for the long-term future of one fighter.

Of course, I’m talking about Rampage.

Once considered one of the greatest, if not the greatest 205-pound fighter on the face of the planet, Jackson has fallen back quite a bit since defeating Keith Jardine in the main event at UFC 96.

It was after that event when Jackson signed on to coach The Ultimate Fighter against “Suga” Rashad Evans. The fight was built up for months and despite the two fighters having no real prior “heat,” it ended up being one of the most anticipated fights in UFC history—and it wasn’t even for a title.

Jackson was thoroughly dominated by Evans’ takedowns and looked to be on his way to losing the fight, but fought back in the third round. Jackson clipped Evans and nearly finished him, but the fight eventually went to a decision which unanimously went in favor of Rashad.

The loss seemed to be mentally tough on Jackson, who took six months before his next fight against another former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, Lyoto Machida, last November. But a second disappointing performance in a row lead fans to question whether or not Jackson still “has it.”

What’s interesting is that Jackson actually won the fight against Machida.

A win over a fighter who only had one previous loss on his career record would normally be considered a high point in many MMA fighters’ careers, but you could literally see the disappointment on Jackson’s face even as the scores were being announced. He even went so far as to say that he thought that the judges made the wrong decision in giving him the victory and that he would love to give Machida a rematch.

How weird is that?

Now with this fight against Matt Hamill, Jackson may be at a crossroads in his career. Does he put on a performance that reminds us of the Rampage of old; or does he drop further into the downward spiral that has become his recent career?

UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones recently mentioned that he believes his next title defense will actually be against Lyoto Machida or Rampage Jackson. Of course, that’s assuming a win over Matt Hamill. Without that, the UFC obviously couldn’t justify giving Jackson a title shot...And given Hamill’s awful performance against Jones in their fight, they can’t give a title shot to him, either.

Saturday could very well be the most important night of Quinton Jackson’s mixed martial arts career. He’s back in the spotlight, a title shot may be on the line and his entire future in the sport may just up for debate if he loses.

Rampage needs this one, badly.

And quite frankly, the UFC needs it, too.