Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson gets set to return to the Bellator cage this weekend as he squares off vs. the American gangster Chael Sonnen in the heavyweight Grand Prix Quarterfinals.
Stress relief
‘Rampage’ Jackson might be heading into a bit of a renaissance in the twilight of his career. In the last couple of fights he’s had, Jackson has put together five wins out of his last six. Even with the impressive record, Jackson has been admittedly bogged down by a series of thyroid and nutritional issues that were affecting his performances in the cage.
On the eve of his Main Event showdown with Chael Sonnen, ‘Rampage’s pre-fight scrum was filled with many questions revolving around the issues surrounding his health. ‘Rampage’ felt upbeat and relaxed about the whole situation. Claiming he hadn’t even stepped on a scale since he started his preparation for the fight.
Being a fighter that has regularly had to cut weight to hit the 205 limit, this training camp was a breeze for ‘Rampage’ in terms of nutritional intake. He mentioned his work with Erick Huerta, diagnosing the thyroid problem and fixing it accordingly, has helped alleviate a lot of the issues he was having taking off the pounds. That in conjunction with his training under Bobby Rimmers for this camp, has helped his confidence immensely when it comes to striking. All these factors together make the return of ‘Rampage’ all the more intriguing as he gets set to fight at full capacity for the first time in four years.
Primed and ready
He may be 39 years old, but the age difference across the tournament will not affect Jackson in most match-ups. He told the media at the scrum very clearly: “I only have a couple of fights left, and I wanna put on the best fights possible. I want to fight guys that are willing to stand and bang.”
Although Chael Sonnen is not the typical ‘stand and bang’ fighter, you can expect that ‘Rampage’s supreme conditioning and size against Sonnen will help his ability to keep the fight standing. As both of these legends of the sport near the end of their career, the stakes are that much higher with the prospect of Bellator gold on the line.
