Mike “The Truth” Jackson looks to bring his brand to the forefront in his fight against CM Punk
Mike “The Truth” Jackson’s philosophy is simple, enjoy what you do. For him that is the world of fighting. Having started training since 2008, he has fought in many disciplines of fighting including boxing, kickboxing and of course martial arts. A fact that is ironic since his parents kept him away from contact sports for many years.
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“My parents or my mother, she never really wanted me to get into any physical sports. I mean, I didn’t get into football until middle school and before that it was basketball, baseball, swimming tennis. There no real contact sports.”
In fact, if you want to the truth, Jackson didn’t even get his nickname from sports, it just happened to stick.
“He (his friend) and I were just hanging out and I was doing somethings, he was kinda freestyling. One of his lines he just drops, obviously as far as the truth goes in basketball it’s all about Paul Pierce. For whatever reason, he correlated me and he says the truth in his flow and it really just kinda stuck with me. It had to be about 3 or 4, no it had to be 2-3 years before I even got into MMA, it really just kinda stuck.
Though his parents would’ve preferred that he worked in the medical field, Jackson enjoyed watching martial arts videos. He first stumbled upon MMA when VHS’ were still being used and he watched a Chuck Liddell fight, it wasn’t long until he found himself training. Then he found himself taking a couple of amateur ones and won with his grappling. But it was after one of his boxing matches when he won by knockout, that he knew this life was for him and that he had to keep on going, looking for that feeling again.
“I was doing some boxing and man like, you knocked someone out when they’re just face flat on the mat, and your hand is raised in the middle of the ring, and everybody is you know watching you and seeing what you’ve done, there is literally no other feeling in the world, at least for me. You know, winning is winning, but when you are able to knock someone out, and they are lifeless, there is no other feeling in the world.”
Since then, the fighting game has evolved for Jackson, it’s turned into photography gigs, becoming a member of the media and a podcast called “The Truth About Stuff”. All of this has morphed into The Mike Truth Entertainment, his brand that he’ll take with him long after he is done fighting.
“The Mike The Truth Entertainment brand. This is me, this is my life. It really means everything. Ninety percent, as far as thing that I’m involved with are fighting related you know one way or the other. The brand is everything, for me its about leaving a legacy. Obviously, it started in the fighting arena but you can’t fight forever. This is something that I have established that will allow me to participate in this sport I love dearly once I’m unable to physically fight in a cage or a ring. I’m still involved in this great sport. That’s really what it means to me.”
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Though the fight is the real deal, the win or loss isn’t what the match true result that will impact what Jackson does next, instead, it’s the credibility of being in the cage that he hopes will launch the part of his career after fighting.
“For me it was all about building the brand, said Jackson. “That’s always been the number one objective with this whole act, this whole showing, was to build the brand and put in on a platform that we’ve never reached before. And so for me, that opportunity the first time, was just that. People know me now, they see me, there’s sort of this, credibility, it’s given me more credibility as a media personality.”
“Perception is reality.”
For me I feel that, the opportunity the first time
In fact, Jackson didn’t have any idea that the fight was even a realistic possibility. It was only after an interview Phil “CM Punk” Brooks did that a story line emerge and made the fight a possibility.
“I had no inclinations of like hey, man their going to give me a call, you can potentially be fighting CM Punk. For me it was just, kinda hanging around and doing my thing and again enjoying life.”
“And then he called me a can, and I was like oh what? He called me a can and then they said he was going to get another opportunity to fight. And that’s really what it was. And once I knew he was going to get another opportunity to fight I was like this is the fight for me.”
In the end he feels this is the only fight to make sense.
“The only fight that makes sense, was Mike Jackson vs. Phil Brooks.”
In the time between his last fight and this one, Jackson decided to be careful of staying active with Muay Thai and boxing fights but not taking MMA fights that would jeopardize his chance at fighting. CM Punk. The only fight he took was against Cyborg’s brother, but he ended up pulling out of the fight.
“I was offered several but I didn’t want to jeopardize the punk fight.”
“But then when Cris Cyborg’s brother, when that fight came about, the way I looked at it was, for me to take an MMA fight, it has to be worthwhile, it has to be a Phil Brooks, or Cris Cyborg’s brother, or Artem Lobov. These are three fights that all make sense.”
Before talking about the fight, let’s be clear, he understands it’s a spectacle.
“It’s a hundred percent a spectacle, it’s a side show, and I’ve never said everything differently regarding me fighting in the UFC. For me it’s nothing but positive, in the grand scheme of things, this is going to be a blip on the radar of MMA. I honestly don’t feel people are going to talk about CM Punk and MMA much longer, especially after the fight.”
But he is taking it seriously, training at Houston Muay Thai and with well-known fighters like Derrick “The Black Beast” Lewis and Matt “Danger” Schnell. As he describes it, Jackson is training for the fight of his life, even if he doesn’t think his opponent is all that good.
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“I’m looking at this as number one, this is the biggest fight of my life, obviously. But this is a very dangerous fight. I’m preparing as if I’m fighting Tyron Woodley, that’s a teammate of his, training partner. I’m preparing as if I’m fighting the best Phil Brooks that has ever walked inside of a cage.”
And when this fight is done, Jackson expects CM Punk to know what his fists feel like.
“I’m just going out there and going to punch him the face a lot.”
