Penick's Take
PENICK'S BLOG: "UFC Primetime: Rampage vs. Evans" resets the hype train for UFC 114
May 13, 2010 - 11:21:35 AM PENICK'S BLOG: "UFC Primetime: Rampage vs. Evans" resets the hype train for UFC 114

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

The third iteration of UFC Primetime debuted last night on Spike TV for the UFC 114 main event between Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and Rashad Evans. After featuring Georges St. Pierre for the last two editions of the show, this show was a nice change in scenery, and did a great job in getting things back on track for this fight after Jackson's part in the A-Team derailed the originally scheduled meeting in December.

They got the show off to a very good start, with a very serious Rampage setting the stage for the remainder of the episode, which showed a few weeks of training camp up through last weekend's UFC 113 event and early this week.

After a season's worth of jokes and comments thrown back and forth by both fighters, it was good to see Rampage in serious mode, ready for this fight and ready to get this bout behind him.

This fight is a big deal, and it's being treated as such. In the end this series may prove more entertaining than the eventual fight itself, but it is still a fight to determine the #1 contender for Mauricio "Shogun" Rua's Light Heavyweight Championship.

Rashad is looking to be in great shape for the fight, and from his sparring to his strength and conditioning showcased during last night's episode it's clear he's going to be ready for three rounds of action.

For Rampage, they did a great job building up and laying out his background, and the story of his rise to where he's at now does a lot to re-build an image that was tarnished by a terrible showing of coaching during TUF 10. The footage of his epic high school power bomb was a nice addition, as was the hysterically terrible picture of Rampage in curls.

All in all the half hour provided a great look into the early goings for both fighters' camps. With the addition of Rashad at UFC 113 and his reactions to how the Shogun-Machida fight went down simply adding to the program, the first look at the preparations for both fighters proved an enjoyable half hour of television. UFC 114 should prove to be a good draw for the UFC, with this series doing a great job of getting the hype back on track for this fight.