The injury bug continues as Ariel Helwani reported that Phil Davis is out of his main event matchup with Rashard Evans for UFC 133. Davis was a replacement for Jon Jones and now Evans must await another opponent.
Lyoto Machida, rumored to have been offered the fight is reported to have turned down the Evans rematch. Tito Ortiz, coming off his stunning upset of Ryan Bader has turned down this fight as well. Evans, who has not fought since Memorial Day 2010, awaits a yet to be announced opponent.
Six of the past nine UFC main events have been changed due to injury.
MMA Fighting analyzes the situation:
Think about how long it’s been since Evans fought Jackson. The UFC has had 27 events since UFC 114. Jackson is far from the most active of UFC fighters, but he’s already fought twice since then. Chuck Liddell has fought more recently than Evans. Jon Jones has gone from not even in the mix for a light heavyweight title fight to becoming the light heavyweight champion in the time since Evans last fought.
Payout Perspective:
The old adage of patience being a virtue has not helped Evans. After waiting for Shogun Rua to recover from injury, he sustains an injury and watches Jon Jones capture the Light Heavyweight title. Then, comes news that Jones is injured and Evans must take Davis in lieu of a title shot. With Davis out, Evans opponent is uncertain and so is his fight choices.
From the UFC standpoint, injury replacements is a part of the business. Yet, the ever-changing main events are difficult to promote/create buzz. Evans is (or was) a top-notch draw and it will be interesting to see how UFC 133 will be handled. What’s interesting is that if Ortiz would have taken the fight, the buzz would have been more on Ortiz than on Evans since Ortiz now has some momentum. With Machida reportedly declining the fight, it will be interesting to see who will Evans fight
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