With UFC 113 barely behind us, it’s already time to start looking ahead to UFC 114—Rampage vs Evans.

The event is May 29th, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas, NV.

Though a notable name in Forrest Griffin has been taken off the card, the lineup is still exciting for most MMA fans.

Rashad Evans and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, will fight in the main event to find out who goes on to face Shogun Rua for his new Light Heavyweight Title.

Griffin and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira were slated to the co-main event, but now Griffin has been replaced by 18-2-1 Jason “The Hitman” Brilz.

In other main card action, there’s Diego Sanchez vs. John Hathaway, Michael Bisping vs. Dan Miller and Todd Duffee vs. Mike Russow.

Spike TV will also broadcast two undercard bouts with Efrain Escudaro vs. Dan Lauzon and Don Hyun Kim vs. Amir Sadollah.

Let’s take a look at the main card.

Diego Sanchez (21-3) will look to bounce back from an embarrassing loss to then-champ BJ Penn at UFC 107.

Though, John Hathaway (12-0) isn’t going to be the stepping stone for anyone. This is Diego’s return to welterweight and I’m sure Hathaway will be glad to welcome him back.

Hathaway is game for an exciting fight and you know Diego will want to bring it early, as usual. This fight will likely be a brawl to the finish and keep a great pace throughout. I’m going to take Diego for the win by decision.

Now that Forrest Griffin has been replaced by Jason Brilz, the man on the other end of the cage will have to tweak his game plan.

Minotoro Nogueira (18-3) will face a much better ground fighter in Brilz, who has racked up half of his wins by submission.

However, for a guy who lost a decision to Elliot Marshall, it doesn’t look like Brilz will pose much danger to Lil’ Nog.

Even Forrest himself didn’t really stand much of a chance in this bout against Nog, who made easy work of Luis Cane at UFC 106 with a TKO.

Prediction? Nogueira by first round TKO for the second time in as many fights.

After losing back to back decisions to Damien Maia and Chael Sonnen, things don’t get much easier for Dan Miller (11-3).

He will face off against “The Count” Michael Bisping and try to finally take down a top tier middleweight in the UFC. Dan Miller is on the outside looking in at the upper echelon of the division, so a win against Bisping is crucial.

Bisping (18-3) has lost two of his last three bouts, most recently a decision to Wanderlei Silva at UFC 110. He’ll look to bounce back but I don’t really see it happening. Miller by decision.

Todd Duffee (6-0) will look to build on his seven second destruction of Tim Hague at UFC 102. His opponent will be a little more game than Hague this time around.

Mike Russow (12-1) also competed at UFC 102 and grabbed a decision win over Justin McCully. Russow is enormous at 265, but Duffee will surely be ready for him.

I’ll take Duffee by second round stoppage.

Last, and certainly not least is Rampage versus Evans.

This main event is what many fans have been wanting to see for a very long time, but Rampages’ departure to create an A-Team movie put it on hold. Finally, it will go down.

Rashad has engaged with Rampage in the trash talk leading up to this fight, but I’m wondering if he’s in a little over his head.

Ring rust will be on everyone’s mind regarding Rampage, but he’ll surely be prepared and isn’t taking Evans lightly. At least I hope he isn’t.

Standing up I’ll give the edge to Page, and I suspect Rashad will be fine staying on his feet and trading. Which could be a huge mistake.

Though Rashad has shown brilliance with his hands before, he simply isn’t as good a boxer as Jackson.

If he lets the trash talk and hype get the best of him and decides to look for the knockout, he’s going to be looking up at the lights come May 29th. I’ll go with Rampage by TKO in the second round.

This will be the second event for the UFC this month. Preliminary bouts will be showcased on Spike TV before the PPV broadcast and that’s always a bonus. It will be hard to live up to UFC 113 that has just transpired, but there are some great bouts to look forward to.

Let’s hope they deliver.

by Ryan Fancey