A light-heavyweight battle between two of the the division’s most familiar faces, Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson and Stephan Bonnar could be in the pipeline if the fighters themselves have a say in the matter.
After recording his third victory in a row at UFC 139 this past weekend a rejuvinated Bonnar was looking for a higher profile opponent next time out and stated that his “dream fight” would be against Rampage.
“He’s good, he’s a big puncher, he’s tough. But he does have holes in his game…Forrest got a close win over him, Jardine fought a good fight with him. I feel like I could fight him good.”
Following his unsuccesful bid to seize the 205lb title from Jon Jones recently ‘Rampage’ had been calling for a rematch with Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua in Japan next February, rekindling an old rivarly from when they both fought for the PRIDE organization.
The fact that ‘Shogun’ only just fought at the weekend and got pretty banged up in the process makes it unlikely that fight will happen on that date however.
According to UFC president Dana White after hearing Bonnar’s comments backstage he pitched the idea to ‘Rampage’ via text message and received a reply that the former champion would accept the fight.
That’s not surprising – Jackson has been calling for a fight against someone who will meet him toe-to-toe in the middle of the Octagon and Bonnar is certainly that man.
