Phil Davis Injured, Out of UFC 133 Bout With Rashad Evans

According to MMAFighting, Phil Davis suffered a knee injury and as such has been forced to pull out of his UFC 133 main event bout with Rashad Evans. Although no replacement opponent has been named, sources say the UFC will be announcing Davis injury and Evans’ new opponent for the August 6 event soon.

Two prime candidates would be Lyoto Machida and Tito Ortiz — both of whom Evans has faced before. He lost in his very first title defense against Machida by second-round KO at UFC 98, five months after TKO’ing Forrest Griffin at UFC 92 to win the strap. Evans battled to a draw with Tito Ortiz at UFC 73, but would have likely lost the bout had “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” not been deducted a point for grabbing the fence.

Machida is on the sidelines awaiting word of his next bout and Ortiz could likely be ready in time to fight on the card.

Evans has not fought since defeating Quinton “Rampage” Jackson at UFC 114 last May. He chose to sit out and wait for his promised title shot at then-champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, but was forced out of their UFC 135 bout in September and was replaced by teammate Jon Jones. Jones subsequently won the belt and pulled out of a planned UFC 133 meeting with Evans due to a hand injury, prompting the UFC to match Rashad up with Davis in the interim. A week later, Jones announced that he would not require surgery and would be ready to fight again by September. In spite of the fact that Evans was told he had the next shot, instead of re-matching Davis with another opponent and giving him “Bones,” Jones was given a bout with Jackson for his first title defense at UFC 135 September 24.

In short, Rashad got screwed again. If he loses against the replacement the UFC gives him then it will be time to buy a new rabbit’s foot.