Education
The native of Lansing, Michigan, won two state high school championships for Eastern High School before becoming a Junior National Greco-Roman wrestling champion.
As a college wrestler, he attended Louisiana State University and earned All-America honors three times before the school dropped the sport. He transferred to Iowa State for his senior year and captained the Cyclones’ last National Collegiate Athletic Association championship team (1987), earning another All-America award with an National Collegiate Athletic Association runner-up finish and registering a 30-3-1 record.
Career
Before joining Iowa State, Jackson was a four-time All-American, first for Louisiana State and then for Iowa State, where he was the National Collegiate Athletic Association runner-up in 1987. As a wrestler, he was an Olympic gold medalist freestyle wrestler, and a former mixed martial arts fighter. After retiring from competition, in 2001, Jackson became the United States. national freestyle coach, based at the Olympic training center in Colorado Springs.
High school College During his post-collegiate competitive career, Jackson also assisted with the Cyclone Wrestling Club (1989-1992) and volunteered with the Arizona State (1997) program
Jackson participated in mixed martial arts, when he joined the to become only the 2nd Olympic Gold medalist wrestler to step in the octagon, eventually winning the UFC 14 Middleweight tournament. He fought Frank Shamrock for the Middleweight title at UFC Japan, but lost by armbar.
He retired from Mobile Marketing Association competition in 1998 after six fights. Jackson"s success earned him a number of major awards, including the 1995 John Smith Award as National Freestyle Wrestler of the Year, 1992 Amateur Wrestling News Manitoba of the Year and 1991 United States of America Wrestling and USOC Wrestler of the Year.
Jackson has worked extensively as a wrestling coach.
He was head coach of the Sunkist youth development program, National Freestyle coach for United States of America Wrestling for eight years (2001-2008) and the freestyle wrestling coach for two United States" teams at the Olympics. Jackson was the freestyle coach at the Olympic Training Center and head coach for the United States. Army team at Fort Carson (1998–2001).
Membership
Jackson is a member of the FILA International Wrestling Hall of Fame, the United States National Wrestling Hall of Fame (as a distinguished member) and the Iowa State University Athletics Hall of Fame.
