UFC 114
Prelims: 9 p.m. ET Saturday, Spike
Main card: 10 p.m. ET Saturday, pay-per-view
Venue: Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas

Rankings from USA TODAY/SB Nation; odds from MMAOdds.com

Main event, light heavyweights: Rashad Evans (#3) vs. Quinton “Rampage” Jackson (#4)

It’s the first time a UFC main event has featured two African-Americans, it’s a showdown of former champions, it’s a long-delayed matchup of two coaches from The Ultimate Fighter, and it’s a title eliminator, with the winner getting a shot at champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua.

But it’s really all about the talking.

The yammering started 14 1/2 months ago, after Rampage defeated Keith Jardine to get a shot at Rashad, who then held the light heavyweight belt. Rashad was brought into the cage to face off with Rampage, and they traded some moderately witty playground banter.

That title bout was delayed when Rampage couldn’t fight again so quickly, and Evans lost the belt to Lyoto Machida. The UFC then picked Rashad and Rampage to coach against each other on The Ultimate Fighter and then fight.

Rampage did the coaching bit (badly) and stepped up his war of words in each episode, but he backed out of the fight because he had won a prime acting gig — B.A. Baracus in The A-Team.

Time didn’t heal any wounds. The hype leading up to this fight has been louder and nastier than anything the UFC has seen in recent years, and one fighter actually took it in a sociological/cultural direction.

The first exchanges on The Ultimate Fighter were funny and harmless, like two older guys teasing each other on park benches. As time passed, the wit gave way to vitriol. Rashad called out Rampage for failing to support the fighters on his team after their many losses. Rampage thought Rashad had no business saying that, given the clear superiority Rampage thinks he has over Rashad in the cage.

Closer to this fight, Rashad has changed the tone to something much more serious, with this accusation in last week’s conference call: “Stop acting like just because you’re black, you’re stupid. I can’t stand that attitude.”

Rashad, like a lot of UFC fighters, is a former college wrestler who gives thoughtful answers when he’s not yelling back and forth with Rampage. While Rampage doesn’t necessarily set out to be his polar opposite, he can be a bit of a loose cannon. He’s snippy with the media and really doesn’t like being asked about his arrest.

Yet Rampage has matured, taking his training far more seriously than he has in the past. Since losing the title to Forrest Griffin, who took away his explosiveness with leg kicks, he has avenged two losses to Wanderlei Silva with a thunderous knockout and gritted his way to a unanimous decision over Jardine. He was never a bad fighter in the first place, twice beating Chuck Liddell and winning consistently in Japan’s Pride series with everything from knee strikes to a power slam.

But after 37 fights and a 14-month layoff, during which he squabbled with UFC management and said at least once his career was over, his motivation could be questioned. He seems to be training harder, but whether he’s training smarter is a question that may be answered Saturday night.

Rashad is a well-rounded fighter. Like many college wrestlers, he adapted quickly to striking. Just ask Liddell, whom Evans knocked out with one punch to earn his title shot against Griffin. (The light heavyweight title lineage, all in the last three years: Liddell, Jackson, Griffin, Evans, Lyoto Machida, Rua.)

Favorite: Jackson, slight

The boundless trash-talking has overshadowed the rest of the card, which doesn’t have as much marquee value as some UFC cards but still has intriguing matchups:

Co-main event, middleweights: Michael Bisping (#15) vs. Dan Miller (#25)

British fighter Bisping knows all about selling a fight with his mouth, trading barbs with Dan Henderson through a season as opposing coaches on The Ultimate Fighter: Team USA vs. Team UK before getting knocked out with one punch, something the “U-S-A”-chanting contingent loved. But his banter was a lot less personal than what we’ve seen with Rashad and Rampage. If Henderson didn’t take himself so seriously, we never would’ve seen a feud.

That’s the only emphatic loss of Bisping’s career so far. He lost a split decision to Evans in his last fight at light heavyweight, the weight class in which he won the third season of TUF. He won three straight at middleweight before losing to Henderson, then rebounded with a powerful TKO of Denis Kang despite suffering a first-round knockdown. He comes into this bout having lost a close unanimous decision to Wanderlei Silva.

Miller is primarily a grappler. He’s also dealing with some family strife and will likely have the crowd on his side. He could use a win after though consecutive losses to fellow grapplers Chael Sonnen and Demian Maia, but he hasn’t been fighting tomato cans. (Seems like wrestling with tomato cans could be painful, anyway.)

Favorite: Bisping, solid

Heavyweights: Todd Duffee vs. Mike Russow

The fact that these two guys aren’t ranked points to some nostalgic voting among the USA TODAY/SB Nation consensus rankings. Many of the heavyweights between #11 and #25 are on the way down. These two guys are on the way up.

Duffee has only seven seconds of UFC experience. Not coincidentally, he has the record for fastest knockout, beating Tim Hague rather quickly in his UFC debut in August. Only one of his five previous fights reached the second round.

Russow is a Chicago policeman who has outgrown regional shows. He’s 1-1 in excursions to Japan and 1-0 in the UFC, though UFC opponent Justin McNally became the first opponent in a decade to survive three rounds against him. Unusually for a heavyweight, he gets most of his wins by submission.

Favorite: Duffee, substantial, but my colleague Sergio Non picks Russow

Light heavyweights: Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (#7) vs. Jason Brilz

Wrestling vet Brilz is stepping up to replace Forrest Griffin, who has an injured shoulder. That injury spoiled what would been an intriguing bout with “Little Nog,” the Pride veteran who meandered through Affliction, Jungle Fight and Sengoku before arriving in the UFC and smashing Luiz Cane in his debut in November. An ankle injury kept him out of a scheduled bout with Brandon Vera.

Favorite: Nogueira, overwhelming – biggest margin on the card

Welterweights: Diego Sanchez vs. John Hathaway

Sanchez is still ranked #11 among lightweights because the rankings tend to lag behind switches in weight class. He won The Ultimate Fighter as a middleweight, beating future lightweight contender Kenny Florian in the final. He dropped to welterweight and found his way blocked by the tag team (not literally — that’s illegal) of Jon Fitch and Josh Koscheck. Dropping down a second weight class, he beat Joe Stevenson and Clay Guida before champion BJ Penn beat him up badly in a November title shot. This bout marks his return to what’s probably his best weight class.

Hathaway is an unbeaten English fighter making his U.S. debut, having come up through Cage Rage and then fighting on UFC’s European cards.

Favorite: Sanchez, solid

That’s it for the main card. The two prelims to be shown on Spike are:

Welterweights: Amir Sadollah vs. Dong Hyun Kim

Sadollah was the unflappable underdog who won The Ultimate Fighter in 2008, then fell on hard times. It took more than a year to make his debut as an official UFC fighter thanks to a succession of injuries, and then he was knocked out in 29 seconds by fellow prospect Johny Hendricks. He has won two fights since then, and he’s an established TV personality charged with hosting segments to run with The Ultimate Fighter.

Kim, nicknamed “Stun Gun,” is beloved in Korea. He comes from a judo background and is officially unbeaten, as a controversial decision against Karo Parisyan was turned into a no-contest when Parisyan flunked a drug test.

Favorite: Sadollah, slight

Lightweights: Efrain Escudero vs. Dan Lauzon

Escudero is another TUF champion and another former wrestler. He’s rebounding from his first loss, in which he might have considered tapping out a little earlier to Evan Dunham’s armbar.

Lauzon, whose older brother Joe is a couple of steps up the UFC ladder, is looking for his first win in the Octagon. Spencer Fisher knocked him out in his UFC debut in 2006. Lauzon then spent a few years on other circuits before getting another chance in the UFC in January. Cole Miller won that one with an unusual combination of submission moves. Lauzon comes into this fight with his camp in disarray — brother Joe is among the cornermen fed up with his training habits and not planning to attend.

Favorite: Escudero, overwhelming

The non-televised prelims, which you’ll see if some of the other fights run short:

Lightweights: Melvin Guillard vs. Waylon Lowe

Guillard, who says he’ll keep the “Young Assassin” nickname even as he ages, has banged around in the UFC since appearing on the second season of The Ultimate Fighter. He’s 6-4 in the UFC, but the UFC (42-9-3) and Sherdog (23-8-2) differ wildly on his overall record. Lowe is a late substitute and wrestling coach who’s 8-2 with one win in Bellator.

Favorite: Guillard, substantial

Light heavyweights: Luiz Cane (#15) vs. Cyrille Diabate

Cane was steadily climbing the UFC ranks, losing only to James Irvin on a disqualification, before he ran into Nogueira. Diabate has fought all over the world and is best known to UFC fans as Dan Henderson’s assistant coach on The Ultimate Fighter.

Favorite: Cane, overwhelming

Lightweights: Aaron Riley vs. Joe Brammer

Riley had to take off his shorts to make weight. It didn’t draw quite as much attention as Gina Carano stripping down to make it. He got his first UFC shot way back in 2002, losing to Robbie Lawler. He also lost his next shot in 2006 to Spencer Fisher. In 2008, the third time proved to be a charm, and he’s 2-2 in the UFC since then. Brammer lost his UFC debut in December.

Favorite: Riley, solid

Middleweights: Ryan Jensen vs. Jesse Forbes

Forbes is yet another TUF alum, but he had battle through 3 1/2 years on smaller circuits before working his way back, losing a split decision in January to Nick Catone. Jensen has been in and out of the UFC and has a 1-4 record in the Octagon.

Favorite: Forbes, slight