UFC 133 has suffered a major lineup change. The headlining bout was to pit former Light heavyweight champion and TUF2 winner Rashad Evans against rising prospect and 4x All-American wrestler Phil Davis in a bout that could have different implications for either fighter in terms of the title picture. This has changed now as Davis has been forced out of the bout with a knee injury. This presented a minor set back for Evans having already coming in off a lengthy layoff since defeating Quinton "Rampage" Jackson in May last year at UFC 114: Rampage vs Evans where they finally fought to settle the score having coached opposite of each other during TUF10. Acting fast after the news broke, speculation ran wild as analysts were questioning if Evans would be assigned a new opponent to face at the same event, or if he would have to wait to fight a new opponent later in the year. With less than a month before the even, the only top fifteen fighters that could fill in to fight Evans and were not already assigned a to fight were former Light Heavyweight champions Tito Ortiz and Lyoto Machida, both of whom have already fought Evans one time each. Ortiz had recently saved his career with a shocking upset over TUF8 winner Ryan Bader with a Rnd1 Submission, and Machida had saved his place in the UFC when he broke a two fight losing streak with a shocking victory over Hall of Famer Randy Couture where he used the famous Crane-Kick to earn the Rnd2 KO. The dilemma has been solve now with Machida accepting the opportunity to fight Evans again in a bout where the winner will for sure earn a shot at the winner Jones vs Rampage for the title.
With this shift, Machida vs Evans II will pit two former Light heavyweight champions in a rematch. In the original match up, both met at UFC 98: Evans vs Machida where Rashad Evans fought for the first time as champion against undefeated #1 contender in Lyoto Machida. Coming into the bout both were undefeated with the only blemish on Evans' record stemming from a Draw with Ortiz. The first round between Evans and Machida was lackluster till the last thirty seconds as both tried to use a counter striking strategy and saw neither really try to engage at all till the end of the round. In the second round, both came out more aggressive where Machida got the better in the stand up catching Evans and rocking him. With a follow up of precision strikes, Machida backed Evans against the cage where he knocked him out and handed him his first defeat. This rematch now gives Evans the opportunity to avenge the only loss in his professional career and solidify his position as #1 contender. Machida has the opportunity to prove he is the superior fighter and earn a shot back at the title. With this, the event has been renamed UFC 133: Machida vs Evans II and is now even more stacked with action packed bouts including Rich Fanklin vs Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Vitor Belfort vs Yoshihiro Akiyama, and Jorge Rivera vs Alessio Sakara. This event is almost guaranteed to be action packed with the potential to be Fight Card of the Year competing against event like UFC on Versus 4 and UFC 132.
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