He hasn’t lost since, with the Colares victory preceded by wins over Brian Kelleher and Andre Soukhamthath that have him on the shortlist of top prospects in the stacked bantamweight division. A win over Wales’ Johns may even see him crack the top 15. That’s a big deal for a young man who came up hard in Milwaukee, and his success has the young people of his neighborhood watching.
“Where I come from, there’s not too many people that make it, so there’s not too many people that they can look up to that’s positive, but I can be that,” said Jackson. “I’m a little more conscious of what I do and what I say and how I react because there’s somebody watching, whether I know it or not.”
That doesn’t mean he wants those looking at him to follow the often rocky path he took. Instead, he hopes they see him as an example and then figure out their own way.
“Sometimes you don’t gotta go through that wall; you can go around it, you can go under it, you can go over it.”
And just don’t tell Jackson that he “made it,” even though some would say that’s the case.
“To them I did, but to me I didn’t.”
