His star on the rise at a most opportune time, the 33-year-old will enter his 2024 campaign as reigning Bellator welterweight champion with the wind of a seven-fight winning streak in his sails. Jackson carries a 17-4 record into the PFL, his resume highlighted by victories over Douglas Lima, Dhiego Lima, Benson Henderson, Neiman Gracie and Paul Daley. He last appeared at Bellator 301, where he punched out the previously undefeated Yaroslav Amosov in the third round of their Nov. 17 headliner and laid claim to the company’s undisputed welterweight crown.
As Jackson awaits word on his first test from PFL matchmakers, here are five things you might not know about him:
1. He has Caribbean roots.
Jackson was born in Spanish Town, Jamaica, on Oct. 30, 1990, a little more than two years after Hurricane Gilbert devastated the island nation with 125 mile-per-hour winds. He moved to South Florida at the age of 12 and went on to graduate from Miramar High School—the same school where three-time Academy Award nominee Johnny Depp once matriculated.
2. He went with the baptism-by-fire approach.
“The Ass-Kicking Machine” made his professional mixed martial arts debut at the age of 21 and needed just 55 seconds to put away Jerome Buchanan with punches at a regional event on April 27, 2012. Some two months later, Jackson accepted his second assignment at Fight Time 10, where he faced onetime NCAA All-American wrestler Colby Covington and dropped a three-round unanimous decision to the future Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight contender.
3. Being hunted does not faze him.
Jackson has held titles in four different organizations: Bellator, Titan Fighting Championship, the Legacy Fighting Alliance and Victory Fighting Championship.
4. He slipped through the cracks.
The UFC passed on two opportunities to sign Jackson. He appeared on Season 21 of “The Ultimate Fighter” in 2015 and went 1-1 on the reality series, as he outpointed Marcelo Alfaya to a majority decision and submitted to a first-round rear-naked choke from Michael Graves. Jackson then competed on Season 1 of Dana White’s Contender Series in 2017, only to see an ankle injury result in a second-round technical knockout loss to Kyle Stewart.
5. An elite inner circle allows him to thrive.
Jackson operates out of the esteemed Kill Cliff Fight Club outfit in Deerfield Beach, Florida, where he sharpens his skills under Henri Hooft, Greg Jones and various other top-shelf coaches. It has also offered him daily access to world-class training partners, from Michael Chandler, Gilbert Burns and Vicente Luque to Shavkat Rakhmonov, Ian Garry, Rafael Fiziev and Impa Kasanganay.