Don’t be surprised if Jason Jackson heads into his next fight with somewhat extra motivation and a chip on his shoulder.
Jackson (18-5) shall be considered one of three former Bellator champions who’re a part of the eight-man tournament field for the 2025 PFL welterweight season. Andrey Koreshkov and Logan Storley join him as ex-Bellator champs, and certain tournament favorites, in the sector.
Jackson’s motivation will come from the very fact he has to call himself a former Bellator titleholder to start with. He knocked out Yaroslav Amosov to win the belt in November 2023 in what was Bellator’s final event under old management.
Once Bellator was snatched up by the PFL, loads of publicized internal changes began happening. And though Jackson knocked out Ray Cooper III in a PFL vs. Bellator champ-vs.-champ fight a yr ago, he said he was put into difficult circumstances by the promotion when he put his belt on the road against Ramazan Kuramagomedov this past June in Dublin.
“It was my night, but I felt like my opportunity, it wasn’t fair for me. The playground wasn’t fair, if I needed to say it that way. It wasn’t level. It wasn’t a level playground,” Jackson recently told MMA Junkie Radio. “I didn’t feel like I lost that fight one bit. The circumstance that it was under was the worst circumstance I’ve ever been under in my lifetime of fighting. I felt like all the pieces was unorganized, and it showed that night because I wasn’t myself in any respect.”
Jackson lost a narrow decision to Kuramagomedov with a trio of 48-47 scores from the judges within the five-round title fight.
When Jackson gets getting into the PFL’s welterweight season in April, he’ll be doing it in Orlando, Fla., which probably gives him an early mental boost given he trains at Kill Cliff FC in South Florida. That takes issues he had ahead of the Kuramagomedov fight out of the equation.
“Ramazan got to Ireland 10 days (ahead of the fight). I got to Ireland on the Wednesday of the fight and I needed to cut weight,” Jackson said. “I needed to keep on with all of the obligations. I needed to do all the pieces. (I used to be) jet lagged – I needed to run to Recent York because Bellator/PFL didn’t get my visa. I don’t understand how they got that issue. I’ve traveled to Ireland, I’ve traveled to Saudi Arabia, and never had a problem until that one night. So to me, that’s like an unfair advantage.
“I had jet lag, all of the stuff going into the fight, and I used to be so mad. I used to be fighting out of anger the primary two rounds because I used to be just so upset that I used to be being put in that position and no person had any leniency or empathy in anyway. Jason Jackson got out here three days (before the fight), still attempting to make the show occur. Let’s not make him do all these media (obligations) and cut weight. I still needed to do the identical thing Ramazan did on 10 days (in Dublin). I needed to do it inside three days, all the pieces.”
Jackson doesn’t know yet whom he’ll be matched up against when the eight-man tournament starts. But fighting indignant, he thinks, may not have been for him.
“I fought indignant before already on (Dana White’s) Contender (Series in 2017), and I broke my leg,” he said. “I fought indignant on ‘The Ultimate Fighter,’ and I break my hand. Now I fought indignant and it caused me to lose my belt. I actually have to take this in consideration and just go rejoice – be the most effective Jason Jackson I could be on the market. That’s once I’m unstoppable, untouchable.”
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