Had it not been for an injury Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson would have fought Glover Teixeira at UFC 153 on Saturday night, and to his credit the former champion still wants to fight the Brazilian despite having just watched him demolish Fabio Maldonado in impressive fashion.
“Yo @danawhite set up that fight with Glover please! Lets give him what he wants..fans I won’t let u down #fightofthenight,” Rampage wrote on Twitter after the event.
And it appears that Dana White is receptive to the idea.
“@Rampage4real sounds good bro,” he replied.
Meanwhile, Teixeira needs no convincing – he had already called out Rampage after his victory.
“I’d like to fight Quinton Jackson,” Teixeira said. “I never talked sh*t about him. He was my idol. I loved that guy coming up in Pride, but he says I was talking bad about him. I’m not talking bad about him. I’m not afraid of no man. Step in the ring with me, I’ll fight anyone.”
It’s a fight that makes sense – in fact we suggested as much in our ‘What’s next?’ feature yesterday. Teixeira looks like a potential title contender, but he needs to be tested against higher quality opposition than just Kyle Kingsbury and Maldonado.
‘Rampage’ isn’t the dominant force he once was, but a win over him still has some meaning and would really start to build the momentum for a title push.
It’s not as meaningful a fight for ‘Rampage’ himself given that he’s already stated that he’s leaving the UFC after this final fight on his contract, but a victory would certainly be a good way to remind the UFC what they are going to be missing out on, and would increase his market value amongst the other MMA organizations who will no doubt be clamoring for his signature.
