MMA legend Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson has just been promoted to BJJ black belt by Allan Goes, a 7th degree coral belt and fellow veteran fighter. Goes was promoted under Carlson Gracie and was actually active in MMA around the same time as Jackson, as his career spanned from 1995 to 2007. Jackson on the other hand made his professional debut a little later than that, in 1999, and he continued fighting all the way up to 2019. They even shared the ring on the same night at one point in time, as they were both on the PRIDE roster and fought different opponents at PRIDE 18 in 2001.
Jackson started out his combat sports career with wrestling initially, but he quickly became known for his incredible knockout power when he made the move to MMA. He was dominant on the regional MMA circuit in the US but he first gained real notoriety in Japan with PRIDE, where he was the runner-up in their 2003 middleweight grand prix and competed for the middleweight title. He eventually moved to the UFC and won the light-heavyweight title there, before unifying it with the PRIDE middleweight title by beating Dan Henderson. Jackson later moved to Bellator and won their light-heavyweight tournament too, before retiring from the sport with a 38-14 record.
With over 50 fights to his name and wins against a number of elite grapplers, Jackson has already proven that he can hang with some of the best around on the ground. He only ever submitted 4 opponents and they were all early on his career, but he still showed some great grappling throughout. Unlike many MMA veterans of his era, Jackson never actually stepped on the mats in competition and tested himself in professional grappling. He did have a short foray into professional wrestling though, with a single appearance at a WWE event and several appearances at TNA before a match on Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport Bushido in 2024.
The full interview with Allan Goes where he promotes Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson to BJJ black belt was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of the Jaxxon podcast:
