If Rampage Jackson doesn’t need surgery on his injured hand, he’ll face Jon Jones later this year for a chance to regain the light heavyweight title he lost at UFC 86 against Forrest Griffin.

In a piece I wrote back in March, I asked the question who in the light heavyweight division would be a significant threat to beat the newly crowned champion Jon Jones. I listed former Rampage Jackson as someone that could do so and I wrote:

Rampage Jackson-If Rampage Jackson is in shape, I’ll give him a shot to beat anyone in the world. He has an iron chin, great knockout power, and solid wrestling skills — when he chooses to use it. He also has great striking defense. I think Jones would have a tough time rag-dolling Rampage the way he has done everyone else. Jones could not afford to make any mistakes with the flashy strikes he throws or else he’d open himself up to Rampage’s counter punches. Jones actually put himself in a couple of bad positions against Shogun this past weekend, but Shogun just wasn’t able to capitalize. For example, one of his spinning back kicks missed badly, leaving him open. Another miss from Jones allowed Shogun to get behind him on the feet, but Rua decided to drop down for a leg lock instead of striking. He couldn’t afford to do that against someone like Rampage.

After watching Rampage Jackson beat Matt Hamill this past weekend, I share some of the same sentiments except I picked up some things from Jackson’s latest performance that I had earlier chalked up to just him being out for so long with the “A-Team” movie. Check it:

  • Jackson does not have the gas tank that he used to have. If you go back to the title unification bout with Dan Henderson at UFC 75, that Rampage Jackson could have fought for 8 rounds and not just 5. The Henderson fight was a grueling war and Jackson had plenty in the tank during the fifth round of that fight. Jackson was very nearly gassed at the end of the third round against Hamill.
  • Rampage Jackson seems to have lost a step power wise. I know the common thing to say is that power is the last thing to go for fighters, but his last knockout was against Wanderlei Silva at UFC 92(Dec. 2008).

If Rampage were to beat Jon Jones those are two attributes that he would need to have a maximum capacity to stand a legit chance of beating the champion. We could chalk Jackson’s performance against Hamill as him not taking him seriously, but I think Jackson did so. Jackson was tired against Machida and as a result got rocked in that final round that almost cost him that fight. Jackson was tired against Rashad Evans in his first fight back since filming his movie as well. Initially, I chalked this up to him just being out for so long and him losing so much weight just to fight Evans. However, ever since he and Juanito Ibarra split, he just doesn’t seem to have the same gas tank. A tired Rampage Jackson would be in trouble against Jon Jones.

Rampage Jackson hit Wanderlei Silva with a flush counter left hook that put “The Axe Murderer” down for the count at UFC 92, but we’ve yet to see that again in his past 4 fights. He dropped Keith Jardine, but you would think that Jackson would have been able to put Jardine away as Jardine has become susceptible to knockouts later in his career. He dropped Rashad Evans, but wasn’t able to put him away either. He hit LyotoMachida with a huge uppercut and Machida just shook it off and kept coming. He hit Hamill with some nice shots and wasn’t able to drop him at all although he was visibly hurt. Some of these scenarios can be attributed to guys having great chins. Rashad’s only been knocked out once, same for Machida, and Hamill’s never really been knocked out(although he was stopped by Rich Franklin at UFC 88). However, a Rampage Jackson that doesn’t hit hard enough to gain the respect of Jon Jones would be in trouble as well.

Stylistically, I give Rampage a much better shot of beating Jon Jones that I gave Shogun Rua simply because Rampage is stronger and has much better takedown defense. He also likes to counter which would be perfect for someone like Jon Jones who likes to stay on the offensive. However, if Jones is able to take to a tired Rampage Jackson down it would pretty much be a wrap at that point. We have to remember that a championship fight is five rounds. What would Rampage Jackson have looked like in the fifth round of a fight this past Saturday night? While it’s true Jon Jones have never gone five rounds, I have no reason to believe that he wouldn’t be able to either.

Business wise I think this fight would do well, Rampage is a fighter with a name and he knows how to sell a fight. In fact, he has already started if you listened to the UFC 130 post fight conference. He said he wanted to ‘break some bones’ and of course Jon Jones nick name is ‘Bones’. Maybe a title shot would light a real fire under Jackson, or maybe he looks at how Jones ran through Shogun Rua and realizes he really needs to ratchet up his training if he intends to regain his title?

If not, Jackson may be forced to endure a beating similar to the one he took at the hands of Wanderlei Silva and Shogun Rua earlier in his PRIDE days.

2 thoughts on “Post UFC 130 discussion: Is Rampage Jackson a significant threat to take out Jon Jones?”
  1. I agree with Kevin, if Rampage is to be beat Jones he will have to work on his stamina. Jones is on top form and he notices that Rampage is running out of gas he will trash him.

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