Former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, is a man with a plan. After signing a six fight extension, Jackson already knows how he’d like the first three bouts to play out.

“I want to go get Rashad. Nice warm-up fight, kick his ass. Fight Shogun, redeem myself for my sleep, for my mind. Then go and beat the hell out of Forrest, retire him.”

Jackson’s reasoning behind his desire to battle both Rashad Evans and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua are obvious to long time fans of MMA. Animosity between “Rampage” and Evans has been simmering for almost a year. The two will finally get their chance to tussle on May 29 at UFC 114 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Rua, the current champ of the 205 pound division, will be a chance at redemption for Jackson. The Universidade da Luta fighter knocked out “Rampage” via soccer kicks in PRIDE back in 2005.

The apparent anger toward Forrest Griffin is a bit unexpected. Despite losing his belt to Griffin at UFC 86, the loss in and of itself is not the reason why Jackson seeks another go around.

“Only reason is because of the way Forrest acted afterwards, when he knows he lost the fight. You go back and watch the footage when they said he won, he was so surprised. That fight was a controversial fight just like Machida-Shogun 1 was a controversial one. But Forrest was the poster boy because of TUF and me, well…”

Step number one in Jackson’s plan starts on May 29 against Evans. Despite taking a hiatus from fighting to pursue acting, “Rampage” believes that ring rust won’t be a factor. He sees Evans as merely a chance to tune up his skills before facing the harder challenge of Rua.

“I feel like fighting Rashad is a step backwards, because he doesn’t have the belt anymore. But if things go right, this will be a nice warm-up fight for (me to face) Shogun. If everything works out it will be nice. Everybody knows I took time off, it would be stupid to go right into a title fight with Shogun so this will be a good test for me. If I lose to Rashad I don’t even deserve to get my belt back!”

(Source: Fighters Only)