“I don’t put anything on a pedestal and I don’t expect anything from people or certain situations,” said Jackson, who will get to face the New Yorker in Las Vegas on December 29. “I said I’m gonna be excited when it happens or after it happens. I’m gonna live in that moment. I’m not gonna make it out to be something it’s not or put too much in it. But if it does happen, when it happens, I’m gonna live in that moment and fully enjoy it.”
What the 26-year-old bantamweight did want to do, though, was fight, and the sooner the better. Denver on November 10, Beijing on November 24, even his hometown of Milwaukee last weekend. Wherever and whenever it was, Jackson was ready.
“In the moment, I asked what the options were,” he said. “I wanted to get right back to it. But the Denver card was already full and no one pulled out. Milwaukee card was pretty much full and nobody pulled out of that. I had no choice but to shake up the dice and see what falls.”
Jackson rolled a seven and got Las Vegas and the biggest card of the year, a chance for the Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series graduate to even his UFC slate at 1-1 after he lost his short-notice Octagon debut to Ricky Simon in August. He took the Kelleher fight at Madison Square Garden in November on short notice as well, making this rescheduled bout one in which he actually got a full training camp. But to “Quik,” those are just semantics, as he’s always in the gym, even after being told to take a little time after his time in New York City.
