ATLANTA – Montel Jackson scored an important win for his career on Saturday at UFC 236, but after his fight he said he has a greater message to preach.
“All I want to say is: Peace, love and plenty of hair grease,” Jackson said after his unanimous decision victory over Andre Soukhamthath (13-7 MMA, 2-4 UFC) in their bantamweight bout.
Jackson (8-2 MMA, 2-1 UFC) said he sees all the sadness going on the world around him, in particular the recent death of Nipsey Hussle due to a shooting. The fighter said he doesn’t want to see any more of that.
“That’s what the world needs at this point,” Jackson told reporters, including MMA Junkie, post-fight at UFC 236. “I want to say Rest In Power to Nipsey Hussle. Nice guy. He comes from some similar circumstances such as my own so to see the world lose a guy like that is truly heartbreaking and it opens out eyes that we got to do more for ourselves. We got to do more to better ourselves and better our community and the people in it.”
UFC 236 took place at State Farm Arena in Atlanta. Jackson vs. Soukhamthath was part of the early prelims, which streamed on UFC Fight Pass prior to televised prelims on ESPN and the pay-per-view main card.
Jackson largely had his way with Soukhamthath over the course of their 15-minute affair. He said he was disappointed he couldn’t get the stoppage, but credited his opponent for showing durability.
“That was my goal to put this guy away, to finish this guy,” Jackson said. “Hats off to the guy. He took a lot of hard hits, he played chicken with the Mack truck. Hat’s off to that guy.”
Jackson is a largely reserved personality who said is not keen on making callouts or stirring the pot. He said he wants to take a slow and stead approach up the 135-pound rankings and is confident he will eventually evolve into an elite fighter.
“I just want to continue to rack up some more wins,” Jackson said. “Gain some more octagon experience, so I’m just looking forward to that.”
For complete coverage of UFC 236, check out the UFC Events section of the site.
