Bellator champion Jason Jackson: ‘I’m sure that I will fight in the UFC one day’

Jason Jackson bided his time waiting for the chance to show the world that he belonged among the best welterweights in the sport. He finally proved it with a stunning third-round stoppage against previously undefeated Bellator champion Yaroslav Amosov this past November.

He followed up that performance with a lopsided finished of former PFL champion Ray Cooper III at the inaugural PFL vs. Bellator event back in February. Now, as he approaches his upcoming title defense against Ramazan Kuramagomedov on Saturday at Bellator Dublin, Jackson hopes to show once again that he’s a vastly different fighter than the one many fans first discovered during his appearances on The Ultimate Fighter and Dana White’s Contender Series.

“It’s growth, experience — nothing beats experience,” Jackson told MMA Fighting. “That’s not something you’re born with. It’s something that you have to get in there and earn and gain.

“I’m nothing like I was on the Contender Series. I learned to be patient. I had plenty of setbacks to get to where I am right now as champion. I’m grateful for all those days that mold me into the man I am inside and outside the cage. I’m blessed and I’m thankful.”

The appearances on The Ultimate Fighter and Contender Series may have gotten his name out there, but neither went Jackson’s way. He was eliminated from the reality show competition after falling to Michael Graves in a quarterfinal matchup and then suffered a gruesome ankle injury that ended his DWCS night early.

Since that time, Jackson has put together an impressive 11-1 run and he’s currently riding an eight-fight win streak ahead of his title defense this weekend.

While he’s certainly appreciative of everything that Bellator has done for him over the past few years, the 33-year-old veteran admits that the day will eventually come when he needs to go over to the UFC to settle a little bit of unfinished business.

“I control my destiny,” Jackson said. “I’m sure that I will fight in the UFC one day, once the time is right. I know that for a fact. That’s something I’m telling you. Once I finish getting enough of a bag and enough is enough, they are going to see my face for sure.”

Jackson won’t put a date on when his transition to the UFC might happen, but he’s openly stating his intention to go there one day to challenge the best welterweights who aren’t competing in PFL or Bellator.

He knows he’s more than ready to face anybody who gets in his way, especially considering he already trains with a long list of top UFC fighters at Kill Cliff FC, which is a gym that houses names like Shavkat Rakhmonov, Gilbert Burns and Michael Chandler.

“It will happen one day,” Jackson said. “Last year around this time, we wasn’t here speaking about this. Next year, it could be a must where everybody [says], ‘This is what we need.’ I’m still young and this is just the tip of the iceberg. I have so much to showcase and prove to myself and prove to the world that Jason Jackson is just at the tip of the iceberg.”

One fight he might want to revisit should he end up in the UFC is a matchup he actually pursued in Bellator that never materialized.

Before signing with the UFC in free agency, Michael “Venom” Page was a top welterweight contender in Bellator and he actually called out Jackson after mashing Derek Anderson’s nose in brutal fashion back in 2021. Jackson says he couldn’t run fast enough to tell the Bellator matchmakers that he accepted the challenge, but he didn’t get the response he expected.

“I asked for him,” Jackson said. “The moment he fought [Derek Anderson] and kicked him in the face and pushed his nose back, he went on the mic and said he wanted to get in there with Jason Jackson. That’s who he wanted to mix it up with. I just came off a little eye surgery with Neiman Gracie. I ripped my eye like three weeks before but I called Bellator and I said, ‘The fight is already on. He said he wanted to fight me and I’m saying yes, I want to fight.’ They said, ‘He’s not going to be ready to fight until September but we have Paul Daley ready to go.’ I was like, this don’t make no sense?

“He just said he wanted to fight me and he ends up fighting Douglas Lima instead. I went and fought Paul Daley and won and I was ready to go again in September and he went to another fight. He wanted the rematch [with Lima] so he could get the title fight. I don’t know if it was just a smart move on his part or what it was, but he had struggled with Paul Daley and I beat Paul Daley. I felt like he didn’t want that smoke.”

Jackson doesn’t know if Page specifically avoided him, but it felt that way at the time.

“I don’t know if it was him intentionally [ducking me] but the fight didn’t happen,” Jackson said. “I spoke about it, I tried to speak it into existence. I wanted to fight him and I ended up fighting Neiman Gracie. Every time I tried to fight him, they put someone else in front of me and I beat them.”

Perhaps he’ll get the chance to face Page one day in the future, but for now Jackson has to stay focused on the task at hand and that involves his title defense on Saturday.

While Kuramagomedov wasn’t the first name expected to get offered to him, Jackson never hesitated to accept and he hopes to hand the undefeated Russian the first loss of his career.

“A little bit [surprised] but at the same time, he’s doing his thing,” Jackson said. “He’s fought in the UFC Contender Series, he’s fought on the big shows so he’s been finishing his guys. There must be something special about him why they chose him.

“I’m not going to say [too much, too soon] because a fight is a fight and every man is equal. Two arms, two legs, two eyes, one body.”