Quinton "Rampage" Jackson improved his Bellator record to 4-0 with a split-decision win over Satoshi Ishii in the main event at Bellator 157 on Friday.
MMAjunkie.com tweeted out the scorecards from the controversial decision:
The fight got off to an inauspicious start, with Rampage taking the center of the cage and looking for Ishii to engage. When his Japanese opponent finally did, he was able to pin Jackson against the cage, secure a takedown and begin asserting his will from top position.
Jackson didn't look like he was in great shape, as Josh Nason of Wrestling Observer Newsletter noted:
The second round started more promising for Jackson, but a miscalculation allowed Ishii to control the fight from the clinch. Nathan McCarter of Bleacher Report highlighted Jackson's questionable decision-making against an Olympic-level judoka:
Still, Ishii wasn't able to amount much offense in the clinch, while Jackson didn't do much to improve his position, leading to a difficult round to judge. MMAFighting.com gave it to Rampage but highlighted the ambiguous nature of the round:
The third round was the easiest to score for Jackson. He scored a surprise takedown and was able to land some ground-and-pound blows on Ishii, but he didn't have the energy to come close to ending the bout.
The former UFC light heavyweight champion returned to Bellator MMA after legal disputes led to a one-fight comeback in the UFC. Before returning to Dana White and Co., Jackson won the Bellator light heavyweight tournament with victories over Christian M'Pumbu and Muhammed Lawal.
Jackson's win doesn't mean he'll be returning to the organization as a light heavyweight contender. This fight was contested at a catchweight of 225 pounds, and if Jackson has his way, that might be a common occurrence.
"I've been thinking about going to heavyweight for a while," Jackson said, per Eric Tamiso of ESPN.com. "I think I'm too small to go against the bigger heavyweights, but I'm too big to be at the 205 weight class; 215 to 220 would be perfect for me."
A move to heavyweight might have more to do with the fact that he's 38 years old and well past his prime, but he could be an interesting main event attraction for the organization. The fact that he's capable of taking on both light heavyweights and heavyweights gives the company more options going forward.
One such option is Matt Mitrione. The two became well-acquainted on The Ultimate Fighter 10, when Jackson was a coach and Mitrione was a contestant. Now, Meathead said he would like a fight with Jackson if he's down for it, per Tristen Critchfield of Sherdog.com:
If Rampage really thinks that he wants to fight me and have the last fight of his career, I would happily try to punch a hole in his face. But I don’t know, for as far as I’m concerned, Rampage is a 205er. I don’t know what he wants to do and how he wants to do it, but if [he’s down, I’m down]. I’m just trying to get paid.
Mitrione is slated to take on Oli Thompson after picking up a first-round knockout in his promotional debut at Bellator 157. However, that's only if the heavyweight is cleared to fight just one month after his last fight, per Matt Erickson of MMAjunkie.com:
Of course, there's also the option that Rampage retires. At 38, he could put away his gloves for the pursuit of an Oscar or the big paychecks that come with doing action movies. Jackson recently turned down a role in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, per Andreas Hale of Yahoo Sports.
Regardless, fans are going to tune in to whatever he does. That's why he's still a headliner 15 years after his debut in Pride.
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