Quinton Jackson returns to Bellator to face Satoshi Ishii

— -- After legal battles and a fight inside the Octagon, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson will return to the Bellator MMA cage Friday night, 769 days since his last bout with the promotion. When a reporter recently asked him how he felt about the return, he remarked, "How does it feel to ask me another damn question?"

Jackson (36-11) will look to do his talking in the cage as he takes on Satoshi Ishii in the main event of Bellator 157, also known as Dynamite II. The event will showcase both MMA and kickboxing fights at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis (Spike TV/ESPN Deportes, 8 p.m. ET).

While not open to discussing his road back to Bellator, Jackson was enthusiastic about how he feels the fight will go.

"I'm looking forward to showing off an ass-whupping," said Jackson, 38. "I don't predict s--- because I'm not psychic, but I predict I'm gonna whup his ass!"

So what's Rampage been up to since his May 17, 2014, win over Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal at Bellator 120? He claimed the terms of his contract with Bellator weren't met, breaching the deal, thus making him open to a return in the UFC. After some legal wrangling on both sides, Jackson was able to fight Fabio Maldonado at UFC 186 last April, winning by unanimous decision. The lawsuit between Jackson and Bellator MMA was then settled this past February, with Jackson signing a new two-fight deal.

The first fight is against Ishii (14-5-1), a 2008 Olympic gold medalist in judo. The matchup appears to be a simple striker vs. grappler, but there is much more to it. Rampage has typically used his wrestling in reverse, keeping fights on the feet to allow his hands to get him the victory. For this fight, Ishii has been trying to improve his striking by working with UFC middleweight Gegard Mousasi. Jackson told "The MMA Hour" that he's preparing for the fight in Huntington Beach, California, with UFC vets Tiki Ghosn and Dean Lister, a multiple ADCC (Abu Dhabi Combat Club) gold medalist.

"My camp went great; this has been one of the best camps I've had in a long time," Jackson said.

While not a household name in the United States, Ishii has fought a litany of champions and contenders of the past. Ishii has battled with Fedor Emelianenko and Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic; he also holds wins over former UFC heavyweight champions Tim Sylvia and Pedro Rizzo. Now making his North American debut, the 29-year-old judoka is looking to make a splash.

"When I was younger I watched Pride on TV and I watched [Jackson] fight a lot," Ishii told ESPN.com. "This is a most important fight to me because I'm going to become famous in the United States and my opponent is a big name."

Since Jackson's last bout with Bellator MMA, the promotion has changed in many ways. The last event he participated in, Bellator 120, was the company's first and only foray into pay-per-view. Spike TV president Kevin Kay confirmed to MMAJunkie.com that the event did 100,000 buys. Less than a month later, founder Bjorn Rebney parted ways with the promotion. He was replaced by former Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker, who was named president.

Gone are Rebney's tournaments to decide who gets title shots against the champions. They've been replaced by Coker's tentpole events, which overall have been ratings successes -- most notably, February's Bellator 149 broadcast, with the Royce Gracie/ Ken Shamrock and Kimbo Slice/Dada 5000 fights averaging over 2.4 million viewers. Overall, it was the highest-rated MMA telecast on Spike in almost five years.

Two potential factors to watch are Jackson's inactivity and the weight at which the bout is contested. As mentioned, Rampage has fought twice in the last two-plus years. Does that time off refresh the body of a fighter who turned 38 on Monday with 47 professional fights on his record? Ishii believes it'll have the opposite effect, saying, "I must put pressure and make him cut out."

The second factor that could favor Jackson is the fight taking place at a catchweight 215 pounds. Ishii has fought mostly at heavyweight but did fight once at light heavyweight in 2011 against Ricardo Arona. Ishii weighed 219 pounds for his most recent fight, a knockout loss to Jiri Prochazka under the Rizin FF banner. On the other hand, Jackson has fought the bulk of his career at 205 and has expressed interest in moving up to heavyweight in the future.

"I've been thinking about going to heavyweight for a while," Jackson said. "I think I'm too small to go against the bigger heavyweights, but I'm too big to be at the 205 weight class; 215 to 220 would be perfect for me."

A remnant from the Rebney-run days of Bellator's past is Jackson's Season 10 light heavyweight tournament title victory, earned by defeating Lawal more than two years ago. That win would've earned a title shot, but when asked about a potential fight with current titlist Liam McGeary, Jackson didn't seem too interested. Last month, Bellator stripped heavyweight champion Vitaly Minakov of his belt due to inactivity with the company, but he has fought four times in the past calendar year in his native Russia.