Quinton (Rampage) Jackson was desperate to return to Japan to fight this week in front of the fans for whom he was a star earlier in his career. Unfortunately, that desperation didn’t extend to making weight for it.
He missed it — by a lot. The former UFC light-heavyweight champion weighed in at 211 pounds on Friday — five pounds above the limit for his bout against Ryan Bader, the co-main event of UFC 144: Edgar vs. Henderson in Saitama, Japan.
Jackson, who fought primarily for the Japanese-based Pride organization from 2001-2006, will be fined 20 per cent of his purse, but their bout will go on at catchweight.
Watch four preliminary fights Saturday on all Sportsnet regional channels starting at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT.
In an interview following his weigh-in, Jackson, who is coming off a loss to 205-pound champion Jon (Bones) Jones, didn’t exactly apologize for being off-target, but hinted at a reason for why he came in heavy.
“I really wanted to fight here. You guys have no idea what I went through. I had a lot of ups and downs in my camp, a lot of struggle to get here,” said Jackson, who had walked to the stage wearing a traditional Japanese headband. “Me and Dana almost bumped heads again, but Dana’s a cool man. He understood how bad I wanted to be here in Japan so he allowed me to not fight in Chicago and be here and put on a show for you guys. I love you all.”
Jackson, who also shouted something in Japanese to the delight of the fans at the Saitama Super Arena, later revealed on the UFC’s post-weigh-in show on FUEL TV that due to an injury in training camp he couldn’t run or get any “roadwork” in. He said he cut 21 pounds, which was as much as he could, but couldn’t shed the final half-dozen to get to 205.
Bader, who snapped a two-fight losing streak with a win over Jason Brilz in his past fight, was on the number at 205.
In the main event, lightweight champion Frankie Edgar and challenger Benson Henderson were both 154 pounds and looking fit. And each was complimentary of the other.
“Ben’s a tough dude,” said Edgar, who is facing only the third different opponent in his past five fights after knocking out Gray Maynard in a rematch following a draw, which came after beating B.J. Penn twice in a row. “It was a good camp to prepare for (Henderson). A new face, a new name. Let’s do it.”
Henderson was humble in his approach yet confident in what will be the outcome of Saturday’s fight in his comments Friday.
“Frankie’s the man, he has a great chin, he has a great heart, has proven himself time and again,” Henderson said. “He’s a great champion. It’s going to be an honour for me to take a belt from a champion like that.”
In a featured heavyweight fight, New Zealand kickboxer Mark Hunt weighed in at 264, yet looked dwarfed by a lighter but taller and chiseled Cheick Kongo, who was 229 pounds.
The card features nine Japanese fighters including three on the main card. The most popular of them is Yoshihiro Akiyama, who weighed 169 pounds and looked healthy for his welterweight debut against Jake Shields (170).
Here are the full weigh-in results:
Main card (PPV starts at 10 p.m. ET)
Frankie Edgar (154) vs. Ben Henderson (154)
Ryan Bader (205) vs. Quinton Jackson (211)
Cheick Kongo (229) vs. Mark Hunt (264)
Yoshihiro Akiyama (169) vs. Jake Shields (170)
Tim Boetsch (186) vs. Yushin Okami (185)
Hatsu Hioki (145) and Bart Palaszewski (146)
Joe Lauzon (156) vs. Anthony Pettis (155)
Preliminary card (on Sportsnet at 8 p.m. ET)
Takanori Gomi (155) vs. Eiji Mitsuoka (154)
Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto (136) vs. Vaughan Lee (135)
Riki Fukuda (185) vs. Steve Cantwell (185)
Takeya Mizugaki (135) vs. Chris Cariaso (136)
Preliminary (on Facebook at 7:30 p.m. ET)
Issei Tamura (145) vs. Tiequan Zhang (146)
