UFC 133 Cancellation: Major MMA UPDATE

By Sean Farrell

Well the UFC has finally met a roadblock and it only took one hundred and thirty-three PPV events to do so (133 events isn’t over a thousand fights or anything…Yes that is sarcasm). It looks like the UFC finally ran out of options.

After a remorseless effort of shuffling in light heavyweights for the key UFC 133 matchups, UFC matchmaker Joe Silva was finally forced to tap out and submit himself.

The UFC announced that Antonio Rogerio Nogueira’s withdrawal from UFC 133 has forced the cancellation of a planned co-feature contest with Rich Franklin entirely. A shoulder injury suffered in training was reported as the reason why “Lil’ Nog” had to pull out of the contest. A timetable for Nogueira’s return is not known.

UFC 133 is already featuring the recently announced main-event rematch between former light-heavyweight champions Rashad Evans and Tito Ortiz, after Phil Davis had to pull out of his scheduled bout with Evans after an injury of his own was sustained. UFC 133 takes place August 6, 2011 at Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center. The night’s main card airs on pay-per-view, and Franklin vs. Nogueira was slated as the broadcast’s co-main event.

With the change, Vitor Belfort vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama has been promoted to co-main event status, and a preliminary card matchup between Brian Ebersole and Dennis Hallman has been bumped up to the evening’s main card. Akiyama and Belfort is going to be a fight for all fight fans, as these two will engage at a million miles an hour and swing and connect until one man can’t continue. Below is the updated main card as well as prelim card. Don’t forget the prelims are two separate events with the first half of prelims starting on Facebook before moving to Spike TV.

MAIN CARD (Pay-per-view)
Rashad Evans vs. Tito Ortiz
Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Vitor Belfort
Jorge Rivera vs. Alessio Sakara
Rory MacDonald vs. Mike Pyle
Brian Ebersole vs. Dennis Hallman

PRELIMINARY CARD (Spike TV)
Alexander Gustafsson vs. Matt Hamill
Chad Mendes vs. Rani Yahya

PRELIMINARY CARD (Facebook)
Ivan Menjivar vs. Nick Pace
Johny Hendricks vs. Mike Pierce
Mike Brown vs. Nam Phan
Rafael “Sapo” Natal vs. Costantinos Phillippou

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