After reports emerged last evening about Phil Davis’ knee injury, UFC have been scrambling for a replacement. Tito Ortiz has already stated that he declined the fight with it being short notice, the potential for ruining his positive momentum is not worth the risk.
Now, it also appears that another former UFC Light Heavyweight champion won’t be stepping up either as Lyoto Machida has declined the opportunity as well. The organization pinpointed Machida as their top choice to step in for Davis, but in a statement with Fighter’s Only, Machida’s manager-wife Fabyola stated:
“The fight is close and for the sake of professionalism we can not accept it,” she said. “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.”
Since his loss to Machida at UFC 98, Rashad Evans is on a two-fight win streak, defeating Thiago Silva and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. After getting injured before his scheduled title shot against Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, now UFC Light Heavyweight champion Jon Jones stepped in and defeated Rua setting off a war of words between the two teammates/friends on Twitter. After saying he wouldn’t defend the title against a close friend, Jones acquiesced and Evans was to receive the first title shot. Jones had to withdraw from the bout due to an injury acquired during his title win over Rua and Phil Davis was put in his place.
UFC 133 is scheduled for August 6th in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania’s Wells Fargo Center.
