But with the pay-per-view headliner now set for the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Hamill plans to prove his top-20 ranking should be higher.
“Rampage is probably thinking about top-five guys,” he said through manager and interpreter Duff Holmes (Hamill was born deaf). “But I just look at Rampage as a big name and somebody who would get me to the next level. ... It’s my chance to prove I belong in the big league.”
Hamill, a three-time NCAA Division III national wrestling champion, puts a five-fight win streak on the line against Jackson, who had smaller success as an amateur wrestler. But Jackson, a nearly 3-to-1 favorite at UFC 130, has better striking and more big-stage experience. And that’s just fine with Hamill.
“It’s just going to help me improve my career,” he said.
A victory also could help an outside project. After sweeping the film-festival circuit — a biopic called “Hamill,” which is based on the fighter’s life — recently was purchased by a distributor and now is set for a fall theatrical release.
Straus falls short in Bellator tourney
Cincinnati native Daniel Straus fell a win short of Bellator Fighting Championships’ season-five featherweight-tournament title.
In the co-headliner of this past Saturday’s Bellator 45 event on MTV2, Straus (16-4) suffered a unanimous-decision loss to highly touted Patricio “Pitbull” Freire (17-1). Freire now gets a guaranteed title shot with champ Joe Warren.
Despite the loss, which snapped his 12-fight win streak, Straus could earn entry into the field for an eight-man featherweight tournament planned for this summer.
In the Bellator 45 headliner, Christian M’Pumbu (18-3-1) knocked out Richard Hale (17-4-1) to win Bellator’s first-ever light-heavyweight tournament. With the win, he also became Bellator’s first champion in the division.
Rogers joins Bellator field
Brian Rogers (7-2), a Kent native and Ohio fight-circuit veteran, has signed with Bellator and joined the organization’s season-five middleweight tourney, which kicks off in September. The winner gets $100,000 and a title shot.
Rogers, who’s won six straight fights (all via knockout), garnered attention from the major organizations after he scored an impressive win on the preliminary card of March’s Strikeforce event in Columbus.
Dann Stupp is editor-in-chief of MMAjunkie.com, voted best media outlet in the 2008, 2009 and 2010 World MMA Awards. For the latest mixed-martial-arts news, go to MMAjunkie.com.
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