Rampage Weighed-In 41 Pounds Heavier than King Mo for Tonight's Bellator 175 Main Event | FIGHTLAND

Back in May of 2014, in the main event of Bellator’s first-ever pay-per-view, former UFC light heavyweight champ Quinton “Rampage” Jackson scored a contentious and fairly insipid decision defeat over Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal. Tonight, when Bellator takes over Chicago’s Allstate Arena with Bellator 175, the pair will rematch at heavyweight. Given that the heavyweight limit is 265 pounds, neither Mo nor Rampage has had to endure much of a weight cut in the build up to this fight. Rampage has taken full advantage of this luxury.

On Thursday afternoon, the 32 fighters on the Bellator 175 bill stepped onto the scale to weigh in for their looming battles. The last two fighters to do so were the headliners King Mo and Rampage.

Mo was the first of the two to weigh in, and tipped the scales at 212—just 6.4 pounds heavier than he was when he weighed in for his 2014 light heavyweight bout with Rampage. Rampage weighed in next, and immediately dropped jaws upon doing so, tipping the scales at a whopping 253 pounds. That’s a substantial 41 pounds heavier than Mo. It’s also a gigantic 47.1 pounds heavier than he was when he weighed in for his first fight with Mo, back in 2014.

Now, for a bit of context:

Though Rampage’s best performances have been at light heavyweight, he’s fought above the heavyweight cap on many occasions. In 2012, he missed weight for a bout with Ryan Bader, clocking in at 211 pounds. In his Bellator debut against Joey Beltran, he weighed in at 210. For his most recent UFC bout, which pitted him against Fabio Maldonado in April of 2015, Rampage weighed in at 215 pounds. In his most recent fight, which paired him with Satoshi Ishii, he tipped the scales at 224.9 pounds. Needless to say, seeing Rampage weigh in north of the light heavyweight division’s 206-pound limit is nothing new. Seeing him weigh in so close to the limit of the heavyweight division, however, is pretty unprecedented.

Given that Rampage’s motivation to fight always seems to be on the verge of disintegrating—it was less than a week ago that he suggested he regretted ever getting into MMA—its easy to read his substantial weight gain as an indication that he’s not taking his career seriously. His performance tonight should give us a strong indication to this end, one way or the other. And for those assuming that this massive weight advantage will guarantee Rampage a win, remember that King Mo wrestled the hulking Cheick Kongo to a decision victory a little over two years ago.

Here’s a full rundown of the Bellator 175 weigh in results (via MMAJunkie.com). Note: rising contender Emmanuel Sanchez missed weight for his featherweight bout with former bantamweight champ Marcos Galvao, while heavyweight veteran Sergei Kharitonov is on the mark for his second fight in the Bellator cage.

The Main Card | 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT on Spike TV

Quinton Jackson (253) vs. Muhammed Lawal (212)
Marcos Galvao (145.5) vs. Emmanuel Sanchez (149.5)*
Chase Gormley (265.5) vs. Sergei Kharitonov (264)
Lloyd Carter (148) vs. Noad Lahat (146)
Steve Kozola (155) vs. Jake Roberts (156)

The Preliminary Card | 6:45 p.m. ET / 3:45 p.m. PT on MMAJunkie.com

Max Fuentes (138) vs. Brandon Shelhart (135)
Asef Askar (157) vs. James Esposito (154.5)
Brian Akins (156) vs. Mike DeLaVega (156)
Cory Galloway (136) vs. David Garcia (137)
Tom Holder (169) vs. Josh Streaker (170.5)
Joaquin Buckley (171) vs. Justin Patterson (171)
Tim Cho (150) vs. Joshua Hardwick (150)
Manny Vazquez (130) vs. Nate Williams (129)
James Bochnovic (205) vs. Matt Paul (207.5)
Damian Norris (155) vs. Tom Shoaff (155)
Adam Maciejewski (262) vs. Prince McLean (225)

Check out this related story:

Rampage versus King Mo: A Decent Fight Made Better By the Dumbness Everywhere Else in MMA