Five Reasons Why Rashad Evans will Beat Quinton "Rampage" Jackson

The only obstacle standing in the way between Rashad Evans and another title fight is Quinton "Rampage" Jackson. Evans will face Rampage at UFC 114, and the winner of the bout will go on to fight Mauricio "Shogun" Rua for the light heavyweight title.

Both fighters will settle a long running battle that started when Evans greeted Rampage after his win over Keith Jardine back in 2009. In response to any uncertainty surrounding who will go on to fight Shogun, here are five reasons why Rashad Evans will be the one to prevail.

Evans Has Gone Back to His Wrestling Roots

The main reason Evans lost to Machida is because he tried to stand with a standup artist. He mistakenly tried to beat Machida at his own game, and he paid dearly for it.

The first rule of MMA is to take your opponent out of his dominant phase of fighting, and it shouldn't be broken. Dustin Hazelett is a good example. Remember when he tried to stand with Paul Daley?

A lot of people expected Evans to come out and try to knock out Thiago Silva in order to re-establish his boxing dominance in the Octagon. But what happened wasn't expected.

Knockouts are hard to get over, and Evans learned from his loss to Machida by going back to his wrestling roots. Having only attempted one takedown in his three fights before Silva, Evans remembered how to ground and pound and did a good job of doing it.

Evans repeatedly took Silva down and even successfully mounted him in the first couple of minutes in the very first round, and he continued to win a unanimous decision.

Rampage holds a grudge against Evans, and he's certainly not looking to score a win by points. There's no doubt that Rampage will be swinging for the fences and looking to stay in the clinch, and while he's focused on that, Evans will easily be scoring takedowns.

Expect to see a GSP-like ground and pound.

Evans Will Not Get Caught Up in the Emotion of the Match

While Rampage is mainly concerned with beating Evans, Evans is concerned with becoming a better fighter. As a result, Evans has remained more consistently competitive and has come back from a devastating loss to Lyoto Machida.

After the loss to Machida, Evans took some time to figure himself out. This was beneficial and what he learned showed in his match against Thiago Silva.

After getting rocked, Evans had wobbly legs, and though Silva taunted him to attack, Evans intelligently clinched him until his senses came back to him.

Evans wanted Rampage after he fought Keith Jardine, and he's been prepared ever since. Rampage, on the other hand, took a hiatus and worked on the set of a movie.

The bottom line: Evans has wanted a victory more than Rampage and for longer, and he's learned how to temper his emotion and fight smarter than before.

For Evans, this fight is the next step to fight for the title, but he'll enjoy the victory along the way. For Rampage, this fight is entirely emotional.

Evans is Hungrier for a Title Match

Prior to his match with Machida, Evans was candid about not caring too much about the belt. He wanted to simply go in and fight, and the belt was extra.

Losing it, though, was devastating, and Evans has had his eye on the belt ever since.

Evans has become tough from a lot of psychological stress. He has always been disliked for "showboating" as many claim, and in facing Silva, he showed that he learned a lot. Namely that he had the title on his mind. If he was fighting Silva the fighter, he would have taken Silva's bait and attacked him when his legs were wobbly.

Now Evans is in range to smell the belt. If he beats Rampage, he can get the belt back, and Evans is ready to proves he belongs in the No. 1 light heavyweight contender spot. But for Rampage, this is a grudge match first, a title shot second.

Rampage Has Ring Rust

Rampage hasn't been anywhere near competition in over a year make a bad case for Rampage.

Rampage has been out of competition for over a year. More importantly than the duration between fights is what he was doing during that time.

Rampage was working on the set of The A Team, which means he certainly wasn't training. This evidently showed during UFC 110 when Evans greeted Rampage.

As Evans recently pointed out, "Rampage needs to get in shape just to get in shape."

Rampage Will Be Overconfident

Each of the aforementioned reasons in addition to the fact that Rampage is falsely confident will work in Evans's favor. The only reasons Rampage is confident is because of who he was and not who he is.

A lot of people are automatically discounting any chance that Evans might have because of Rampage's past demonstrations of his power. This is a mistake that many fighters have made in the past.

What matters is what you are capable of at the time of the fight; not who you were. Anything can happen in MMA, but one mistake is to assume that you are as good as you were before a long layoff with a complete lack of competition.

The stress, wear and tear, fatigue, and emotion that fighters experience in competition cannot be fully duplicated, and it's a ball that needs to keep rolling if the fighter wants to beat the best.

Rampage is confident that he can get in the Octagon and slam Evans. However, Evans is at the top of his game, and thus slamming him is easier said than done.

Evans will also not likely go for a submission but a ground and pound TKO, so expect to see a battle in the clinch and a three round match.

Evans is at his best. He is strong, fast, evasive and now he is patient. Evans can stand if he needs to, and he regularly wrestles with some of the best in the Octagon.

Evans's versatility alone should inspire Rampage to proceed with caution, and being fresh from his victory over Silva and still humbled from his loss to Machida, Evans will be stronger, more patient and better prepared for than Rampage for their upcoming match.