I guess Quinton “Rampage” Jackson’s tweet about not fighting in Japan was a little premature. It turns out the former Pride star will indeed be headed back to the Saitama Super Arena one more time, and he will face Ryan Bader at UFC 144. Brett Okamoto of ESPN has the confirmation:
The UFC has granted Quinton Jackson’s request to fight in Japan in February.
The former light heavyweight champion will meet Ryan Bader at UFC 144. UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta confirmed the matchup to ESPN.com.
Rampage is coming off a fourth-round submission loss to Jon Jones in a UFC light heavyweight title fight at UFC 135. He had recently been called out by Stephan Bonnar after UFC 139, but the UFC opted to go in another direction and match Jackson up with a different UFC 139 winner. Bader knocked out Jason Brilz in 77 seconds on the card.
The bout is likely to be the co-main event of the UFC 144 card, with the main event being a UFC lightweight title matchup between champion Frankie Edgar and challenger Ben Henderson.
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