Let’s Cool Down on the Rampage vs. Silva IV Talk

It wouldn’t be MMA if a promotion wasn’t making its best effort to dilute a great rivalry matching two enemies against each other long after their best days have passed. For the moment, let’s forget about Oscar de la Hoya allegedly trying to promote a third meeting between Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz. (I choose to pretend we live in a world better than one that sees fights booked for a 48-year-old Chuck Liddell, but its gotten harder to pretend after Bellator booked Ken Shamrock and Dana White booked Greg Hardy.) Instead, this column is about Wanderlei Silva vs. Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, one of the finest trilogies MMA has ever seen, which Bellator is threatening to turn into a tetralogy.

“That’s something that we’re talking to ‘Rampage’ about and talking to Wanderlei about,” Bellator CEO Scott Coker told MMA Fighting of a proposed fourth bout between the fighters. “I would love to make that fight before the end of the year.”

This is bad news, like when a perfectly good movie from your childhood is remade. Nothing good can come from a 42-year-old Wanderlei Silva, who has competed once in five years (the result of fleeing from a drug test and later injuries sustained in a car accident), fighting a 41-year-old Rampage Jackson, who hasn’t gotten his weight down to the light heavyweight limit in four years.

Bellator’s television ratings have been poor this year, and their formula to pop a big rating for the past few years has been to throw to old, well-known fighters in the cage and let them plod around until someone’s knees give out. Silva vs. Jackson fits that formula but matching them in their current states sacrifices the rich legacy of the rivalry they began building fifteen years ago.

In this UFC-centric world, fans have been led to believe that Pride’s 2003 middleweight tournament was bracketed to built to a Wanderlei Silva vs. Chuck Liddell final, and Rampage Jackson beating Liddell ruined those plans. In reality, Jackson and Silva were the tournament favorites, and the end goal of the tournament was Silva vs. Jackson.

Silva took leadership over Pride’s middleweight division (the equivalent of the light heavyweight division elsewhere) in March 2001 with a roaring knockout over Kazushi Sakuraba. He solidified that spot, and became Pride’s first middleweight champion, in a rematch with Sakuraba on November 3 of the same year in what was the biggest fight in MMA history to that point. Silva carried a twelve-fight unbeaten streak into the 2003 tournament, which boasted a field consisting of most of the world’s best middleweights.

Jackson was destructive leading into the tournament. Following a loss to Sakuraba in his Pride debut, Jackson quickly gained momentum and fans with exciting performances highlighted by impressive slams. Victories over Igor Vovchanchyn and Kevin Randleman proved him as one of the division’s best. It was after the Randleman victory that Rampage took the microphone and called Silva out. Silva was sitting ringside, but not for long as he was eager to join Jackson in the ring. He shoved Jackson before they were separated by a dozen officials.

In their first-round matches for the tournament, Jackson edged past Murilo Bustamante, a late replacement for Ricardo Arona, in a fight that could have gone either way, while Silva destroyed Sakuraba for a third time. The semi-finals took place the same night as the finals, with Jackson battering Chuck Liddell in a hard-fought bout, and Silva having a surprisingly tough and close fight against Hidehiko Yoshida.

With divisional supremacy hanging in the balance, Jackson appeared to be better positioned going into the finals. He controlled Silva on the ground early before a controversial stand up put the fight back in Silva’s court. Living up to his “Axe Murderer” nickname, Silva mauled Jackson on the feet and finished the fight.

Clearly, the fight settled none of the animosity. On Halloween night one year later, they met again in the Pride ring, this time with Silva’s middleweight title on the line. It was both a better night for Jackson and a worse night. The first round was Jackson’s highlighted by a knockdown and some dangerous ground and pound. In the second round, Silva unleashed one of MMA’s most legendary finishing sequences, Silva hurt Jackson with a right hand and then blasted his head with knees from the clinch. One found the right spot and turned off Jackson’s lights, sending him falling between the second and third ropes, where he dangled with blood streaming from his forehead.

That was a bad look for Jackson, and naturally he didn’t want that image to be the lasting impression of his rivalry with Silva.

Four years later, both had moved on to the UFC. Jackson had just lost his light heavyweight championship to Forrest Griffin in a close bout and was just about at the peak of his powers. Silva’s chin had betrayed him by this point, but a quick knockout of Keith Jardine had put him right back in the title picture. He and Jackson met again at the end of 2008, and the hard feelings hadn’t changed.

The third bout began slower than their previous contests. Just as it was getting going, it ended in a flash courtesy of a brutal Jackson left hook. For good measure, he followed up with a couple of right hands on an unconscious Silva as referee Yves Lavigne tried to wrangle him away.

The bitter feelings may still persist ten years after the fact, but no issues could possibly be resolved in a fourth fight after three bouts failed to settle their differences. Silva and Jackson competed in three bouts, which produced three legendary finishes and two of the best bouts of the era. Twice they battled over the very top of the division, and the third time both were highly relevant title contenders. A fourth fight, in which both have plummeted from their perches, can only detract from the great series their rivalry forged.

Silva and Jackson have fought for so long that there are plenty of old rivals for both that Bellator could dig up and trot into the cage. Let’s just let this one rest.

Dan Plunkett has covered MMA for 411Mania since 2008. You can reach him by email at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @Dan_Plunkett.