UFC 133 (Phil Davis....... is OUT!)
 

It seems that Rashad Evans just can't catch a break. Phil Davis, Rashad's opponent at UFC 133 has been forced to withdraw from their fight according to MMA Fighting. From the story:

Phil Davis has been forced to withdraw from his UFC 133 main event fight against Rashad Evans due to a knee injury, MMA Fighting has learned from sources. No word just yet on who, if anyone, Evans will now fight on the Aug. 6 card.

Evans chose to sit on the sidelines waiting for his title shot against Mauricio Rua while Rua recovered from knee surgery. Evans would then injure his own knee in training for the Rua fight, opening the door for Jon Jones to replace him and win the UFC light heavyweight championship.

Evans and Jones have since engaged in a very public feud having been former training partners. A fight between the two was postponed due to a Jones hand injury which led to Jones choosing to stay busy and fight Davis. Now, Davis is out and Rashad is without an opponent.

A fight between Jones and Quinton Jackson is planned for September, meaning the UFC can't slide Rashad into the title shot that he earned with his win over Jackson.

Looking around, the only available big names would seem to be guys like Lyoto Machida or Tito Ortiz (assuming Tito can make a quick turnaround after a short win).



So now the question is... who does Rashad face? Cause he's been out a long time now. He was ready and now his opponent is out. Should he wait for the winner of Jones/Rampage?

That's a long ass time off waiting for the winner of Jones/Rampage. From a purely business perspective, having Tito in that place would probably do better numbers wise than Lyoto or even Phil Davis before that. If I'm Tito I'd be begging for this fight. Their last fight was a draw so it's not like Rashad buried him and Rashad's coming off a huge lay off. If Tito wins that fight, it would put him at most a fight away from a title shot and at the very least give him more shit talking rights over Chuck.

More likely his replacement would be a LHW with an upcoming fight around that time.

Scratch that, Machida is going to replace Davis.

So since Machida is the official replacement... will this fight go longer than 2 rounds? Will Machida give Evans another KO loss? Machida is the odds on favorite. Heavy favorite.

I could see Machida winning with another KO.

I cant imagine Rashad taking the same strategy into the fight with him

Apparently Machida is not the official replacement.

From Fighter's Only:

http://ht.ly/5DyvT

Lyoto Machida’s manager-wife Fabyola says that her husband won’t be taking the late-notice fight with Rashad Evans.

Evans is without an opponent after Phil Davis pulled out yesterday. Tito Ortiz was asked to step in for the August 6th fight. He declined and the buck passed to Machida, who has yet to formally respond to the UFC’s offer.

“The fight is close and for the sake of professionalism we can not accept it. We always do our best, but there is only a few weeks [until the fight] and it wouldn't be fair on the fans to put in a bad performance,” she told Nomundo Dos Lutas in Brasil.

But Yahoo! Sports writer Kevin Iole posted a Twitter message at roughly the same time as Fabyola’s comments surfaced, saying that UFC president Dana White had told him Machida would be taking the fight: “Just got a text from @danawhite. Machida is in vs. Suga Rashad, he says.”

There has still be no official confirmation of that. An announcement is expected today from the UFC but if Machida won’t take the fight the options are thin on the ground.

Breaking up the light-heavyweight match between Rich Franklin and Rogerio Nogueira on the same card is a possibility. Evans vs. Franklin might be a popular match with the fans, Evans vs. Rogerio probably less so.

Machida is the only person to have defeated Evans in his professional career. He did it by way of knockout at UFC 98. Evans has since gone on to win two fights while Machida won the belt, defended it once and then went on a two-fight skid before bouncing back with a win over Randy Couture.

UPDATE: Since the report was published, Fighters Only reporter Eduardo Cruz has spoken to Fabyola personally and been told the same, that Machida will not be taking the fight as it is too short notice.

Still no official word from the UFC.

Tito doesn't seem interested in the fight either according to his twitter.

stupid for tito not to take it. he came out of the bader fight unscathed as far as i can see and this fight could have turned him around from washed up has been on the brink of being cut to genuine contender.

It would be almost stupid for him to take it, yeah it's a great opportunity, but he's also 36 and just came off a training camp and a fight 2 weeks ago. It's all about being able to peak on fight night, and obviously he felt he woudn't be ready on just three weeks notice.

I also think Tito being washed up has been a bit overblown, he wasn't KO'd in his losses, and other than the Hamill fight, was always competetive. Yeah he lost, but the guy has had half a dozen surgeries in the last few years. Appearently he's healthy now.

Only until his next loss. Then we'll find out he wasn't healthy again :P

tito isn't that good. if he did fight rashad and got a title shot out of it he wouldn't really deserve it, but it'd still sort of make sense.

I can't even think of who I would put in against Evans. I know Matt Hamill just got beat by Rampage, but who else is there if neither Tito or Machida want the fight?

Sucks for Evans. He might have another tough choice of fighting a guy who he has nothing to gain against...or perhaps waiting for a title shot..again.

I wonder how bad the PPV buys are going to be for this card.

According to MMAJunkie its Tito vs. Rashad II afteralll.

I wonder how much they offered him.

I won't lie I'll mark out if Ortiz wins. And I dont even really like the guy.

I'm definitely cheering for Tito. I think either way this is a win/win for Dana. If Tito wins he gets to put on Jones/Ortiz which would probably do huge numbers and if Tito loses he gets to put on Rampage/Ortiz. Definitely cheering for Tito though.

Whoa Whoa, Slow your roll folks. Rampage is gonna obliterate Jon Jones face.

Wow..ok so we know Rashad is no Bader. How can Ortiz win this fight? And it will be a 5 round fight so might be to his disadvantage.

It'll probably be a groundfest so Tito has to outwrestle Rashad and grind out a decision hopefully.

Thought the 5 round main events didn't start until the show after this one.

This fights only 3 rounds. Rashad didn't really do much with Tito the last fight so I'm not really expecting a blow out from Rashad. He'll probably wrestle out a decision. Would be sweet if Tito clipped him early and got a TKO though.

Oh I thought the 5 rounders started already in the next one..better for Tito then :D

Interesting turn of events... There is so much drama surrounding Suga right now. He's switching camps, opponents are getting hurt...this usually ends badly. Tito is in an awesome position to pull of the Leben sweep.

With that being said, Rashad is decisively better than when they first fought, and though Tito is healthy, with a solid excuse for losing built in with the short notice....this should be a wrestle fuck fest to a decision.

Is this card cursed?

That was a fight I was really looking forward to seeing. Rich is just fun to watch in there and I was hoping he was gonna take it to Lil Nog. Hope Rich gets an opponent in time.

Damn injuries. They train too hard probably

wasnt the last card (or two) that Rashad headlined absolutely cursed as well?

isnt it funny? seems the fastest way to become unpopular with UFC fans is to win a decision that clearly should have gone the other way. i call it The Bisping Effect. the best thing a fighter can do in that situation is turn on the judges and acknowledge that the decision was B.S. the second Joe Rogan sticks that mic in their face. the worst thing would be to do what Bisping did and try to rationalize the judges' bad decision.

not that it was Lil' Nog had anything to do with it, but i've been rooting against him ever since the Brilz Robbery. Bisping went from being popular to being very unpopular overnight after The Hammil Screw Job. Leonard Garcia lost a lot of good will from fans (myself included) by winning a bad decision over Nam Phan - and i think he said that he agreed that the decision was bullshit.

Other than cards where he pulled himself out, no he was last on the memorial day weekend card in may 2010 that was awesome.

I never saw anyone giving lil nog hate especially because of his decision against brils. I mean come on, hes lost since then anyways.

Noone hated forrest for beating rampage...

Anyway bisbing was already a piece of shit and the fact that hammil was such a fan favorite to begin with ON TOP of the fact that hammil was robbed, made people hate bisbing.

I think a lot of people lost the love for garcia because of how out of shape and sloppy he looked more than the bad decision.

I'm sure they'll just put Franklin in the Silva/Okami card as soon as Rua or Griffin get hurt and pull out.

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lol love Rashad asking somebody else about "believing everything that's he saying"

Rashad will win