The recent string of MMA injuries has claimed another main event, as Phil “Mr. Wonderful” Davis has been forced out of his UFC 133 headliner against “Suga” Rashad Evans after suffering a knee injury. MMAFighting.com first reported on Davis’s withdrawal from the August card this evening.
According to a subsequent report from Tatame, the UFC has now contacted former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida and offered him a rematch with Evans on the card, but no decisions have been made as of yet. Machida knocked out Evans for the title at UFC 98.
Davis (9-0-0) has won five straight fights inside the Octagon and looked to be in line for a title shot if he was able to get past Evans (15-1-1). The standout wrestler is coming off of impressive wins over Tim Boetsch and former PRIDE star Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, but will now have to wait a little longer for a shot at title contendership due to the untimely knee injury.
Evans is expected to remain on the card against an opponent to be determined, and early indications suggest that Machida may be Evans’s next opponent. This marks the second change in opponent for Evans, who was first set to face former teammate Jon “Bones” Jones for the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship. Jones replaced Evans in March and captured the title from Mauricio “Shogun” Rua.
UFC 133 takes place on August 6th at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
UFC 133 Fight Card (to date; subject to change):
– “Suga” Rashad Evans vs TBD
– Rich “Ace” Franklin vs Antonio Rogerio “Minotoro” Nogueira
– Vitor “The Phenom” Belfort vs Yoshihiro Akiyama
– Jorge “El Conquistador” Rivera vs Alessio “Legionarius” Sakara
– Rory “The Waterboy” MacDonald vs Mike “Quicksand” Pyle
– Alexander “The Mauler” Gustafsson vs Vladimir “The Janitor” Matyushenko
– Chad “Money” Mendes vs Rani Yahya
– Brian “Bad Boy” Ebersole vs Dennis “Superman” Hallman
– “The Pride of El Salvador” Ivan Menjivar vs Nick Pace
– Johnny Hendricks vs Mike Pierce
– Mike Brown vs Nam Phan
– Rafael “Sapo” Natal vs Constantinos Philippou
(Photo Credit: Sherdog.com)