Some strange news today in the world of combat sports and hours after the story came out, I’m still confused by it all. Earlier today MMAjunkie.com revealed that Viacom, which owns Bellator MMA, is planning a year-end pay-per-view event to go head-to-head with UFC 168, which is currently targeted for Dec. 28. And the main event of the evening is going to be a boxing matchup between recent Bellator signee Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and former multi-division boxing world champion Roy Jones Jr. I wish I was joking about this, but sadly I’m not. I just don’t know how to react to this news. Part of me wants to laugh. Part of me wants to cry. And part of me wants to know just what the heck Viacom is thinking by putting this matchup together. According to the story on MMAjunkie, Bellator will likely reveal full plans for the year-end PPV during next week’s Bellator 97 card, including the weight class and number of rounds the fight between Jones and Jackson will be set for. And we should also know if the card will be a boxing-only card or a boxing/MMA hybrid card, similar to old Rumble on the Rock events. I really do think Bellator and Viacom in general has overestimated Jackson’s appeal to the current crop of MMA fans. While once one of the best fighters in the world, and once the ruler of the 205-pound weight class, Jackson has really fallen off the map in recent years as he’s lost his last three fights in a row and hasn’t looked like he’s wanted to compete in a very long time. And while Viacom will likely market Jackson as some sort of knockout artist, keep in mind he hasn’t scored a TKO since 2008 when he defeated Wanderlei Silva at UFC 92. As for Jones Jr., he is 44-years old and isn’t relevant in the world of boxing anymore as he’s lost three of his last five boxing matches. Although UFC star Anderson Silva was interested in a fight with Jones Jr., the difference between Silva and Jackson is that Silva doesn’t have anything left to prove in the sport of MMA while Jackson still does to many people. If this fight does come to fruition, I’m curious to see what the betting lines will be set at. Since it’s a boxing match, I’d guess Jones Jr. would enter as a slight favorite but even though Jackson hasn’t shown much power as of late he still has the potential for a knockout and he could definitely win the fight via TKO. I’d likely watch this fight if it was free just out of the sheer weirdness of it all, but if it’s going to be headlining a $50 PPV card, I’m going to pass and I’m assuming many of my fellow MMA fans are going to do the same.
