Quinton "Rampage" Jackson vs. Thiago Silva targeted for UFC 130

[Rappy Veteran]

Fresh off a dominating win over Brandon Vera at UFC 125, light heavyweight Thiago Silva (15-2 MMA, 6-2 UFC) next will fight former champion Quinton "Rampage" Jackson (31-8 MMA, 6-2 UFC) in a UFC 130 bout expected to have a major impact on the title picture.

Sources close to the event today told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) verbal agreements are in place for the fight.

UFC 130 takes place May 28 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

Jackson vs. Silva likely will be part of the pay-per-view main card, possibly in a headlining or co-headlining spot.

Despite fighting for the first time in a year due to injuries, Silva looked sharp in a lopsided unanimous-decision win over Vera this past week. Silva dominated the fight on the mat with frequent takedowns, a smothering top game, and ground and pound that ultimately broke his opponent's nose. In the end, the judges awarded the Brazilian the decision via scores of 30-26, 30-27 and 30-27.

Prior to the victory, Silva opened his career with a 13-0 mark but then went 1-2 with losses to former champs Lyoto Machida and Rashad Evans and a knockout win over Keith Jardine.

Jackson, meanwhile, recently got back into the title picture and rebounded from his own loss to Evans with a close split-decision victory over Machida in November's UFC 123 headliner. It was his third win in the four fights since he lost his belt to Forrest Griffin in 2008. The former PRIDE star's other recent victories came over Wanderlei Silva (knockout) and Jardine (decision).

A heavyweight bout between former champ Frank Mir (14-5 MMA, 12-5 UFC) and fellow contender Roy Nelson (15-5 MMA, 2-1 UFC) is in the works for a planned Memorial Day weekend event expected to be UFC 130.

A source close to the negotiations told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) verbal agreements are in place for the heavyweight tilt.

An additional source said the contract issues that forced Nelson out of an early-year event aren't expected to be an issue.

A blog for the BetUS.com sportsbook first reported the fight, which is expected to take place May 28 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Nelson vs. Mir likely will be part of the pay-per-view main card.

Mir is coming off an impressive third-round knockout of Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic in the headliner of September's UFC 119 event. In the four fights prior, the former titleholder alternated between wins and losses. A TKO victory over Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (for the interim belt) was followed by a TKO loss to Brock Lesnar (a title-unification bout). He responded with a submission win over Cheick Kongo but then suffered a quick KO loss to Shane Carwin.

Nelson, meanwhile, looks to rebound from a recent high-profile loss. The former IFL champion won "The Ultimate Fighter 10," which he entered as a heavy favorite, by knocking out Brendan Schaub in the finale. He then posted a 39-second knockout win over Stefan Struve. But in a fight that UFC president Dana White said would earn the winner a title shot, Nelson dropped a decision to fast-rising Junior Dos Santos at UFC 117.

While initially booked for a UFC 125 bout, opponent Carwin was forced off the card with an injury, and Nelson then was sidelined due to contract issues, according to UFC president Dana White. White declined to name the promotion, but sources close to "Big Country" confirmed that former boxing great Roy Jones Jr.'s Square Ring Promotions is the company that claimed to have Nelson tied down.

Nelson headlined a MMA/boxing hybrid card Jones Jr. promoted in March 2009 entitled "March Badness" and was defeated by former UFC heavyweight contender Jeff Monson via unanimous decision.

"These guys go out and sign with these rinky-dink little promotion companies and sign these bad contracts, and let's just say Roy Nelson is involved in a bad contract right now that he had before," White said back in November. "There's a couple of different organizations out there that do it."

Apparently, those issues have been resolved.

[Kriz]

Bah they need to still put together the Rampage/Chuck fight, although that should be pretty good.. Frank Mir/Roy Nelson should be a good fight, i doubt Mir will be able to get Nelsons fat legs in a hold :rofl:

[D. S. Veteran]

Bah they need to still put together the Rampage/Chuck fight, although that should be pretty good.. Frank Mir/Roy Nelson should be a good fight, i doubt Mir will be able to get Nelsons fat legs in a hold :rofl:

Rampage against Chuck? LoL. Chuck has been hit in the head, one too many times.

They are also hoping that Edgar can get clearence and do Edgar vs Maynard III at UFC 130.

[Kriz]

Hopefully, the sooner they get that out the way the better..

Yeah Rampage/Chuck man, im still anticipatin it from the over-hyped run up to when they were gonna fight at the end of TUF..

[Rappy Veteran]

still awesome :D

[Kriz]

Haha amazing, he's so funny.. :laugh:

[D. S. Veteran]

still awesome :D

Yeah. That cardboard door was no match for the might of Rampage. He used a bigger diversity of attacks against that door than in his last fights :rofl: