A severely overweight and sluggish Jackson’s final contracted bout for Bellator MMA was at Bellator 237 and Scott Coker is willing to re-sign the fighter, assuming he is serious about fighting.
“‘Rampage,’ I think he’s got to figure out what weight class he wants to fight at,” Coker told MMA Junkie. “That’s really what it comes down to. We fulfilled our obligation with him and we’re still talking to his manager. We have a good relationship with him and Tiki (Ghosn), and it’s just going to be like: Does he really want to do this? Does he really want to go out there and throw down? Because there’s times in a fighters career where it’s like, ‘That’s it.’ They’ve done everything they can in the sport. ‘Rampage’ is a legend. He’s already done it all. He doesn’t have anything to prove to anybody, including myself. I think that’s something we’ll have a conversation with him but Tiki is saying he wants to go back down to 205. If he’s really serious about taking another stab at it. We’ll definitely have that conversation.”
Jackson has gone 5-3-0 during his Bellator MMA tenure, with notable wins coming over Joey Beltran, King Mo and Wanderlei Silva.
The victorious Emelianenko, who defeated Jackson at the aforementioned Bellator 237 card, is still a dangerous fighter in Coker’s eyes.
“Fedor was in great shape and he came in and did what he had to do,” Coker said. “He looked amazing, honestly. He threw combinations. He threw legs kicks like he hasn’t in a while, he surprised me. ‘Rampage, he did the best he could.’ He got hit and I think he just felt the power and he said, ‘There’s going to be another day for me and it’s not going to be tonight.’ Fedor is who he is. Even though Fedor is in the fourth quarter of his career and it’s the two-minute warning, the guy is still dangerous. Any day that he punches you it’s lights out.”
There has been no comment at this time from Jackson or his representatives about the fighter’s future plans.
