Damon Jackson: “It makes me feel like an athlete again”

“I love my life; I got a pretty good one,” says the 36-year-old Texan, who returns to the lightweight division this Saturday in New York City to face Jim Miller. “I'm happy about the promotion; it makes me feel I feel like an athlete again. So yeah, I'd say it's pretty good.”

Not bad for someone who has a 1-3 record in his last four fights at Madison Square Garden to be the “bad guy” against local hero Miller, but if the fight game has taught us anything, it's that Not all victories and defeats are created equal. So let's take a close decision loss to Billy Quarantillo, a knockout loss to Dan Ige where he got caught, and a second decision loss to Chepe Mariscal where Mariscal weighed 149.5 pounds, and add in that Jackson was sweating up to the 145-pound featherweight limit, and it's not like he's been knocked out in three fights.

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But he had to make some decisions, one of which was moving to lightweight, where he hasn't fought since 2018. And oh, he loves it.

“I’m tired of coming down to featherweight,” Jackson said. “That’s 30 pounds. I run around 175 so I can definitely do the weight, but I think my body needs a break from cutting weight and I don't really want to do a move up and then back down. So I definitely plan on making this a permanent thing. I don't see any other way to make the jump to featherweight. It puts a lot of strain on my body and I think my body will handle 155 much better. I'm looking forward to getting in there. We'll see how it feels and how it all turns out. But I plan on sticking with '55.”