His debut was at PRIDE 15 against legendary submission grappler Kazushi Sakuraba where he fought valiantly in a loss and had an instant following. Jackson returned to PRIDE 17 to face Yuki Ishikawa and wasted little time, knocking out the Japanese wrestler early in the first round. At PRIDE 18, Quinton faced Takada Dojo fighter Daijiro Matsui, but an unintentional knee to the groin from Jackson forced a disqualification.
Quinton beat PRIDE veteran Alexander Otsuka in an MMA match at the “Battlarts vs. The World” show in Japan and stopped K-1 fighter Masaaki Satake with a hard slam at PRIDE 20. Quinton returned to the US in the KOTC 13 show against WVC/IFC veteran Sean Gray and pounded him into the canvas in round three. Then it was back to PRIDE 22 to face Russian striker Igor Vovchanchyn. This was to be Jackson’s statement fight and “Rampage” did not disappoint. He slammed Igor hard and pounded out a win late in the opening round.
Kevin Randleman battled Jackson at PRIDE 25 and “The Monster” fell from a knee to the face in the first round. He beat Russian Top Team fighter Mikhail Illoukhine at PRIDE 26 with strikes and then took a decision victory over Brazilian Top Team fighter Murilo Bustamante. Quinton stopped current UFC light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell with strikes in the 2003 Total Elimination show but was dropped by the knees of Wanderlei Silva later that night.
At the 2003 New Year’s Eve show, Quinton beat Ikuhisa Minowa with strikes in the second round. Jackson slammed/head butted Ricardo Arona into unconsciousness at the 2004 Critical Countdown show and then was knocked out by Silva again in their rematch at PRIDE 28. And in a minor stroke of revenge, Jackson defeated Chute Boxe fighter Murilo Rua by decision at PRIDE 29 and knocked him out of the middleweight tournament.
RUA: Brazilian Muay Thai fighter and BJJ brown belt Mauricio Rua trains with his brother Murilo Rua and PFC middleweight champion Wanderlei Silva under Rudimar Fedrigo at the Chute Boxe Academy. Mauricio began training Brazilian jiu-jitsu and Muay Thai many years before becoming a part of the Chute Boxe team. Once there, he began training under the tutelage of Professor Rafael Cordeiro and with the addition Cristiano Marcelo he will continue to improve. “Shogun” brings an 8-1 record in MMA and makes his 5th appearance (4-0) in the PFC.
Rua started fighting in the Rudimar Fedrigo-promoted Meca Vale Tudo events where he went 3-0, including a referee stoppage over current Chute Boxe fighter Evangelista Santos. He also competed in the IFC: Global Domination tournament held in 2003. Rua made it to the semifinal round, defeating Eric Wanderlei by TKO, and lost to former Ruas Vale Tudo fighter Renato Sobral by submission. In October of 2003, Rua made his PRIDE Bushido debut and knocked out “Mr. PRIDE” Akira Shoji early in the first round.
At PRIDE Bushido 2, Rua continued to impress, knocking out Pancrase star Akihiro Gono. RINGS veterans Yasuhito Namekawa was dropped with strikes at PRIDE Bushido 5 and “Shogun” continued his “KO Japan Tour” by knocking out Hiromitsu Kanehara in less than two minutes.
MY PICK: Rua. “Shogun” looks virtually unstoppable right now. Only two fights have gone beyond the first round and one was against the best competition he’s faced (“Babalu”) in his only loss. Jackson’s best bet is to try and outwrestle Rua but even if he gets him to the ground, it’s not going to be easy. Many feel “Ninja” did enough to take the win from Quinton and maybe Jackson’s fire has subsided after the second knockout loss to Silva. How could you bet against a guy who knocked out his last four opponents (all Japanese or not) in the first round? I feel it will be Rua by KO in the first round.