Bubba Jenkins and Jordan Parsons were enemies when they met in the Bellator MMA cage last year — and perhaps also leading up to the bout, as they shared some trash talk with each other before they squared off. But, after Parsons fell victim in a hit-and-run accident and passed away this past May, Jenkins felt just as much sorrow at the death of Parsons and just as sympathetic to the family of the Fargo, N.D., native as everyone else.
“It was very, very sad. I was extremely sad because I had followed him after I had fought him and leading up to our very intense selling of the fight,” he said. “Me getting the win, I was very happy for the future of his career, knowing that he was such a tough opponent, and knowing that he was on his way to stardom. And [he was] bumping up to 155-pounds, where I think he would’ve given a lot of people problems because I think he was naturally a bigger 145-pounder than he wanted to let on.”
Jenkins, who is scheduled to rematch Georgi Karakhanyan at Bellator 160 later this month in a major featherweight contest, was Parsons’ last opponent. Jenkins believes this made the situation even tougher for him, in particular, to handle, compared to other fighters.
“Me being his last opponent made me feel some kind of way about it — only because we were in the same cage in the same moment,” he said. “I actually used to train down in Coconut Creek, down in that area where he trained. It could easily have been me, instead of him, or easily have been anyone that I’ve known, instead of Jordan. God doesn’t do anything randomly, so there was obviously a reason for it. I’m grateful to be here, and I’m truly sad for his family that that was the way it happened, and that’s the way that Jordan will be remembered.”
Although Jenkins is anxious to avenge his early 2015 submission loss to the 31-year-old, he says Parsons will be on his mind going into and during the fight because it’ll be the latter’s birthday.
“The night that we’re fighting, Aug. 26, is his 26th birthday,” he said. “It is going to be ringing in my head; it’s going to be ringing in [the heads of] some of the people that know me and know him because that’s something that, it definitely was a devastating loss.”
But, make no mistake about it: despite the fact Jenkins is competing in one of his most crucial fights to date on his late former opponent’s birthday, he says he will be focused and ready to perform to the best of his abilities. He says he is prepared not to allow Parsons get to his head too much at the wrong times.
“Life has prepared me for blocking out distractions,” he said. “There were many times that I was dealing with death in the family. And, I’ve dealt with death all my life. Anyone from a hardened area, a lot of people deal with these things — distractions.”
“I think God has put me in everything that I’ve ever been in, as far as the ups and the downs, to build me for moments like this. You really have the biggest wrestling match of your life but things aren’t going right, or you have the biggest fight of your career and there’s something else [happening], whether it’s my wife being pregnant, or dealing with the death of Jordan and it being his birthday. Things like that. I think my life and my whole being has prepared me for everything that I’m gonna go through. I don’t think there will be something that I go through that I won’t mentally be able to handle because I’ve just been so much already. So, distractions are nothing more than just normality.”