UFC 114 - Rashad VS Rampage

UFC 114 official for May 29, Rashad Evans vs. Quinton Jackson headlines

As expected "The Ultimate Fighter 10" coaches Rashad Evans (14-1-1- MMA, 9-1-1 UFC) and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson (30-7 MMA, 5-1 UFC) finally will meet in May at UFC 114.

The UFC today officially announced the fight, which initially was supposed to take place at in December at UFC 107.

The new meeting takes place May 29 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas and coincides with UFC 2010 Fan Expo, which takes place down the street at its sister property, the Mandalay Bay Events Center.

The "TUF 10" coaches and rivals put the UFC 107 bout on hold because of Jackson's short-lived retirement. He announced he was leaving the sport and voiced his displeasure with UFC management following his stint on "TUF 10," which showed the former champ in a less-than-flattering light after he advanced just one of eight fighters past the tournament's opening round.
With Jackson sitting out, Evans instead fought Thiago Silva at UFC 108 in January. The bout took the night's main-event slot after a series of injuries ravaged the fight card and prompted the cancellation of a few would-be headliners.

Evans picked up a unanimous-decision win over Silva and successfully rebounded from his vicious knockout loss to Lyoto Machida at UFC 98 in May 2009. The loss – the first of Evans' career – forced him to surrender the light-heavyweight belt he won six months prior with a TKO win over Forrest Griffin.

Jackson, meanwhile, will make his first appearance in 15 months at UFC 114. He hasn't competed since his unanimous-decision win over Keith Jardine in UFC 96's main event in March 2009. It was his second straight win (he also knocked out Wanderlei Silva at UFC 92) since losing the light-heavyweight title to Griffin in July 2008. It remains Jackson's only loss of his past eight fights.

The latest rumored UFC 114 card includes:

MAIN CARD
•Rashad Evans vs. Quinton "Rampage" Jackson
•Forrest Griffin vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira*
•Michael Bisping vs. Dan Miller*
•John Hathaway vs. Diego Sanchez*
•Dong Hyun Kim vs. Amir Sadollah*

PRELIMINARY CARD
•Melvin Guillard vs. Thiago Tavares*
•Todd Duffee vs. Mike Russow*
•Chris Leben vs. Aaron Simpson*
•Efrain Escudero vs. Dan Lauzon*
•Luiz Cane vs. Cyrille Diabate*
•Joe Brammer vs. Aaron Riley*
•Jesse Forbes vs. Ryan Jensen*
* - Not officially announced

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steph said:

Rampage had some funny ass one-liners, but Rashad totally owned him in the verbal battles on that show. I do want to see Rashad take it and get another opportunity to get his belt back...

Machida/Shogun 2 will be UFC 113, so depending on who wins that (*cough* hopefully Shogun will rightfully win this time!), it could be interesting to see if there's a future fight between the winners of each of these fights.

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tatzoo said:

Im going to have to disagree...

I see Rampage beating Rashad's ass pretty easily...Rashad has a button on his chin, all Rampage has to do is push it like a few others have easily done..

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steph said:

I like them both, so I won't be strongly disappointed regardless of the outcome.

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