Francis Ngannou demonstrated just what heavyweight mixed martial artists are capable of when he knocked down Tyson Fury in his boxing debut. Now other fighters form the sport are looking to secure lucrative matches in Saudi Arabia and Quinton Jackson has thrown his hat into the ring.
Jackson is 45 years old and hasn’t fought since 2019. Unless you count the Diane’s twins fight at Fight Circus when he was stitched together with Bob Sapp, which no official records will.
He was invited to Saudi Arabia last weekend to watch Fury narrowly defeat Ngannou. It seems to have inspired ‘Rampage’ to take up boxing and he has even started training.
In a video shared on Instagram he calls out former heavyweight world champion Shannon Briggs:
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No class
Briggs is 51 years old but retired from boxing with a record of 60-6-1-1. He faced the likes of George Foreman, Lennox Lewis and Vitali Klitschko and was the WBO heavyweight champion.
Jackson has been picking on his fellow American constantly since landing in Saudi Arabia. He earlier posted a video mocking Briggs for wearing a baseball cap to a pre fight event saying that,
“He’s like school on a Sunday, no class.”
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On board
Briggs definitely seems to be on board with the idea of fighting Jackson. He was training regularly in Saudi Arabia and says he is going to start his fight camp in Thailand.
No date has been confirmed and it isn’t clear whether or not there is an offer on the table to do the fight in Saudi Arabia. The match between Fury and Ngannou reportedly bombed at the box office with the pay per view market proving way smaller than anticipated.
That might not be a major concern to the oil rich promoters looking to put Saudi Arabia on the boxing map. But the audience for a fight between Briggs and Jackson would be nowhere near as big as it was for Fury and Ngannou.
We have seen a few crossover fights in which mixed martial artists have faced boxers. Ngannou is the first to really test a top level opponent from the latter sport and he has clearly paved the way for more fighters to strap on the 10oz gloves.
‘Rampage’ definitely wants in and in Briggs he has found a willing partner. Both men will be hoping that the Saudi Arabians decide that a match between two ageing veterans is worth splashing out on.
