Bellator 157: Dynamite 2 heads to St. Louis in June with 'Rampage' vs. Satoshi Ishii

Bellator has set the date for its second MMA and kickboxing crossover event, and it will feature the return of Quinton Jackson to the promotion.

Bellator 157: Dynamite 2 will take place June 24 at Scottrade Center in St. Louis. In the main event, “Rampage” Jackson (36-11 MMA, 3-0 BMMA) will meet Japanese Olympic judo gold medalist Satoshi Ishii (14-5-1 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) at a 215-pound catchweight. Promotion officials today confirmed the event and fight booking to MMAjunkie after an initial report from ESPN’s Brett Okamoto.

The first “Dynamite” event took place this past September with Bellator 142 in San Jose, Calif. The card featured MMA fights in the cage and GLORY kickboxing matches in a ring right next to it, and after the main card on Spike, the two sets of events were going on simultaneously.

Satoshi Ishii

Ishii will be making his Bellator debut. This past December, he fought at the first Rizin Fighting Federation event in Japan, but had his two-fight winning streak snapped with a first-round knockout loss to Jiri Prochazka.

After winning Olympic gold at the 2008 Summer Games, Ishii turned to MMA, where he quickly picked up a 4-1-1 record and got a heavyweight fight against Fedor Emelianenko in Japan. He was knocked out halfway through the first round. After that, though, he went on an eight-fight winning streak that included victories over UFC veterans Tim Sylvia, Sean McCorkle, Kerry Schall, Pedro Rizzo, Jeff Monson and Philip De Fries.

Bellator in February announced Jackson would be returning to the promotion after reaching “an amicable agreement to settle the litigation between the two parties.” Jackson had been in a bit of contract purgatory while the courts figured out who had the rights to his services – Bellator, or the UFC.

The UFC didn’t renew Jackson’s contract after it ran out following a three-fight losing streak in January 2013. He signed with Bellator and first fought for the promotion at Bellator 108 in November 2013, picking up a first-round knockout win over Joey Beltran.

He was put into Bellator’s Season 10 light heavyweight tournament and knocked out former champ Christian M’Pumbu at Bellator 110 in the semifinal, then beat Muhammed “King Mo” Laval in the final at Bellator 120, which was the promotion’s first – and so far only – pay-per-view event.

But a title shot never came, and ultimately it was announced in December 2014 that Jackson had re-signed with the UFC on his three-fight winning streak. Jackson said Bellator didn’t honor his contract to the letter, and that’s why he returned to his former home. But Bellator officials said Jackson’s contract with them still was valid, and that the promotion would duke it out in the legal system.

The UFC booked Jackson for a fight against Fabio Maldonado at UFC 186 in April 2015. But three weeks before the fight, the UFC pulled him from the bout when Bellator was granted an injunction to keep him from fighting at the event in Montreal. But then the week of the fight, a judge overturned that ruling, and Jackson fought and beat Maldonado by unanimous decision.

Jackson hasn’t fought since then – though he was on hand at Bellator 145 this past November in St. Louis watching the fights at Scottrade Center. And as fate would have it, that is where he’ll return to the promotion.

After his win over Maldonado, Jackson told MMAjunkie the contract squabble was “the most stressful time” of his career. But now it appears the former champion, who will turn 38 the week of his fight at Bellator 157, can move forward with his career.

For more on Bellator 157, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.