Montel Samuel Jackson[6] (born April 24, 1992) is an American professional mixed martial artist.

[7] Jackson started training in wrestling at high school to get away from street life as most of his friends ended up in jail or dead.

[9] During this time, one of his friends, Devondrick Bankston, was preparing for a fight against Raufeon Stots, and asked him to help on wrestling drills at Red Schafer MMA gym.

At the gym, he met Gato, a Puerto Rican, who managed to talk him into competing in a Brazilian jiu-jitsu tournament without a real class instructions.

Eventually, Jackson gave up his Olympics dream and transitioned to mixed martial arts.

[10][1] Jackson started his professional MMA career in 2017 and fought primarily on the regional circuit in the Midwest United States.

[12] Two month after the win over DiSciullo, Jackson made his promotional debut on 11 day notice, replacing Benito Lopez, on August 4, 2018, against Ricky Simón at UFC 227.

[14] Jackson was originally scheduled to face Brian Kelleher on November 3, 2018, at UFC 230, replacing injured Domingo Pilarte.

[32] Jackson won the fight by unanimous decision, setting the record for the most knockdowns in a bout in UFC Bantamweight history with four.

[41] However, Jackson withdrew from the bout for undisclosed reasons, and was replaced by Alateng Heili on four days notice.