'Rampage' Jackson thinks Emmanuel Newton should have Bellator 205 title

Asked where a Bellator title would rank among his career accomplishments, Quinton Jackson couldn’t summon much enthusiasm.

The 35-year-old fighter is now in his 15th year in MMA and once held the UFC light heavyweight title. He symbolically took the PRIDE middleweight title seven years ago when he beat Dan Henderson in the octagon. But he doesn’t seem to have much use for the belt of his current promoter.

“Honestly, I think (Emanuel) Newton deserves the belt,” Jackson today told MMAjunkie. “I’m the first-ever unified champion; why not let the young cats be the champion and have their belt?

“Emanuel and I have the same coach. That’s going to divide our gym. I really don’t care for the belt.”

That puts Bellator in a slightly awkward position if Jackson (34-11 MMA, 2-0 BMMA) is serious and manages to best Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal (12-3 MMA, 4-2 BMMA) on Saturday at Bellator 120, which takes place at Landers Center in Southhaven, Miss. The veteran fighters headline the event in a bout to determine the winner of the Viacom-owned promotion’s Season 10 light heavyweight tournament. (Main card fights air live on pay-per-view following prelims on Spike TV and Spike.com.)

The winner of Jackson vs. Lawal moves on to meet Newton, who beat Lawal this past November for the interim championship before taking the undisputed title four months later. But there might be snag.

“I’m saying I won’t want to fight Emanuel,” Jackson said. “I’m not looking forward to fighting Emanuel. I’d rather not fight him.”

Asked whether he would do it in spite of his feelings, “Rampage” said, “No, I didn’t say I would do it. I’ve told [Bellator]. They still talk about me fighting him, but I told my manager and everything.”

Jackson, of course, doesn’t want to delve too deeply into possible scenarios that might arise in the future. Right now, he’s focused on Lawal, who he said angered him by getting in the cage following his victory over Christian M’Pumbu in the tourney semifinals.

“I haven’t won the tournament yet,” Jackson said. “I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. I want to focus on what’s ahead of me and I’m not going to look past anybody and say who I am or am not going to fight. I’ve still got a fight this weekend.”

It’s a fight close to home for the fighter, who now resides in Southern California but hails a short drive from the event’s arena in Memphis. Jackson estimates he’ll have 60 family members watching him compete.

In 2009, Jackson was slated to headline UFC 107 against opposing “The Ultimate Fighter 10? coach Rashad Evans, but withdrew from the event when he was offered the role of “B.A. Baracus” in a movie remake of “The A-Team.”

According to Jackson, his rivalry with Lawal kicked off much the same way as with Evans. Jackson said Bellator didn’t give him advance notice that Lawal would square off with him following his win over M’Pumbu, as did Evans in late 2009 after his win over Keith Jardine at UFC 96. His heated temperament, combined with the fighters’ confrontational behavior, set him off.

Although Lawal did most of his trash talking toward Jackson before they were under the same promotional roof, and the two reportedly buried the hatchet later through a common sponsor, Jackson said he never fully warmed up to “King Mo.”

“He said he wanted to fight me when I was past my prime and when I was on my way out of the sport, and it really motivated me to train super hard for this fight,” Jackson said. “The relationship didn’t really go south. We just had a common sponsor that asked us to be cordial when we saw each other, but the only thing that happened was after my fight, he came into the cage. I didn’t know that Bellator told him to come into the cage. I was excited because Christian, my last opponent, said he was going to retire me.

“I have a lot of passion when I fight, and a lot of business was flying around, and ‘King Mo’ shouldn’t have stepped into the cage. He had no reason to be there. That was my time to shine. We still would have been cool if he hadn’t come into the cage that day.”

Jackson isn’t sure whether fighting Lawal will repair the damage, but he is unequivocal about his relationship with Newton, with whom he trains under the roof of MMA veteran Antonio McKee.  It’s that history that gives him pause about his future.

“I’ve trained with Emanuel for years, and Emanuel’s tough,” Jackson said.

For the latest on Bellator 120, stay tuned to the MMA Rumors section of the site.