Quinton “Rampage” Jackson may be getting back into the ring.
Jackson has not competed since a knockout loss to Fedor Emelianenko at Bellator 237 back in 2019 (unless you count his foray into Fight Circus), but on a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience MMA Show, the former UFC light heavyweight champion revealed that he’s in talks for a boxing match with former opponent Rashad Evans.
“I saw [Evans] not too long ago,” Jackson said. “Him and I are talking about doing a boxing match against each other in November. We’re trying to get that going.”
This is a change of direction for Jackson, who previously targeted a boxing match against former WBO heavyweight champion Shannon Briggs. However, after that matchup repeatedly fell through, Jackson said he’s moving on.
“Bro, this motherf*cker called me out as soon as I got knocked out by Fedor,” Jackson said. “He called me out and he said he was going to promote the fight. MMA guys, we’re not promoters... Then we were supposed to fight and we finally had a show. We were going to do it in Qatar, but the guys that were putting it on, they turned out to be f*cking scam artists...”
“He’s still trying but I lost my faith in Shannon,” Jackson continued. “I don’t know if he’s going to get it done. He talks a good game. I hope he gets it done. If he ever gets it done, I’ll be game to fight him, but right now I guess my first boxing match is going to be against Rashad. I need to get that win back.”
Jackson and Evans have plenty of history together as the two served opposite one another as coaches on season 10 of The Ultimate Fighter, and later fought in the main event of UFC 114 back in 2010. Evans won that fight by unanimous decision in a fight that still eats at Jackson. Now he’s hoping he can do something about that
“They were talking about in Atlanta,” Jackson said. “I’m not sure, but they said it was going to be under the ONE FC banner. I’m waiting for my manager to talk to them.”
Like Jackson, Evans has been out of action for some time. Evans came out of retirement in 2022 to end his MMA career on a win, defeating Gabriel Checco at Eagle FC 44 back in 2022.
ONE Championship will hold its third U.S. event on Nov. 8 at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Ga. The card is currently headlined by an MMA heavyweight title fight between Anatoly Malykhin and Reug Reug.
