‘I knew I was the one’, says Jamaican Jason Jackson after world Bellator MMA title victory

The 33-year-old #2 ranked fighter ended the defending champion’s 27-fight winning streak after stopping the 30-year-old odds-on favourite in the third round.

It is Jackson’s first major world title since turning pro in 2012, while Amosov who was drafted by the Ukrainian army to fight in the ongoing war with Russia, was losing for the first time in his career.

"This feels like a dream and I woke up and I'm still dreaming," said Jackson, who was born in the St Catherine capital of Spanish Town before immigrating to the US aged 12 with his parents.

As he savoured the moment of being a world champion for the first time, the Jamaican added in a post on his personal Instagram page: “This means everything to me and my family and all the hard work that I had to put in to be here. This was not given, I earn my way here. I had to sit in and waited for two years for this opportunity. I knew I was the one that was going to put the only one (defeat) on the Amosov’s record and I did it tonight. And all respect to Amosov I love that guy. No disrespect talking highly of myself.” 

It capped a remarkable journey for the Jamaican who broke his leg during a fight in 2017. The injury threatened to end his career as an upcoming MMA fighter. Fighting was also his only source of income at the time and to make matters worse his wife was pregnant while fire had just destroyed his mother’s house in his native land.

Thirteen months later after breaking his leg Jackson was back in the ring and prior to Saturday’s world title fight, told the BBC in an interview that victory over Asmsov will definitely help him to raise the profile of MMA back in the Caribbean island.

"I'm a prideful Jamaican because, for a small island, we make the most noise in the Caribbean. So I take that to heart - I'm a Jamaican and they're not going to keep me down.

"I'd go back [to Jamaica] and give back, and do seminars, charities, stuff like that. I'd get involved rather than just carrying a flag around and representing.

"There's definitely more to it to being Jamaican when it comes to winning over the Jamaican crowd,” he was quoted by the BBC in the lead up to the fight.

So after claiming the Bellator MMA welterweight crown on the weekend in such dramatic fashion, more Jamaicans on the island now know of Jason ‘Ass-kicking Machine’ Jackson and are converted MMA fans as of Saturday.

Indeed, Jackson’s triumph on the biggest stage to date is also a victory for the sport of mix martial arts, just the way the Jamaican envisaged it.