After decades in the sport at the top of middleweight and light heavyweight respectively, Chael Sonnen and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson met at heavyweight in the opening round of a championship tournament at Bellator 192.
Sonnen spoke to Fightful about the ill will between the two in the lead up to the fight, but as the date grew closer, it was clear Rampage Jackson had a significant size advantage. That didn't seem to affect things, as Sonnen landed strikes with regularity in the first round, and took Jackson down in the second. It wasn't until the third round we saw Rampage was able to use his size to control Sonnen. It wasn't enough, as Jackson was taken down yet again.
Sonnen would gain a unanimous decision victory to move on in the Bellator Heavyweight Championship tournament. He'll face the winner of April's Frank Mir vs. Fedor Emelianenko bout.
You can see an excerpt of the fight from our Bellator 192 live coverage below.
Round Three: The fighters clinch against the cage. Sonnen spends most the time with his back to the cage. The referee resets the fighters. Jackson starts throwing big strikes and taunts Sonnen. The fighters clinch in the middle of the cage and Sonnen lands a takedown.
Fightful scores the round 10-9 for Sonnen
Chael Sonnen defeats Rampage Jackson via unanimous decision
During the first round, Rampage showed a glimpse of his old brilliance, by delivering a low-impact slam, reminiscent of those that helped make him a major name in MMA.
All of the other members of the heavyweight tournament were on location in California at the event, being used to kill time to match up their top matches to breaks in the UFC PPV.
You can check out our Bellator 192 coverage at this link, and our Bellator 192 post show podcast at this link.
