It was announced earlier today that surging light heavyweight, Phil Davis has suffered a knee injury and will be forced out of his fight with former champion, Rashad Evans at UFC 133, a blow for the scheduled Main Event.
The two fighters were set to headline the event that is set to go down in under four weeks time on August 6th.
The UFC is no stranger to last minute replacements this year so the search is already underway for a replacement.
It has been reported that Tito Ortiz turned down the bout and that Lyoto Machida has been offered the spot.
The biggest loser in this whole situation is Rashad Evans who, after a string of bad decisions and injuries, finds himself in an incredibly awkward position.
If Machida does not accept the bout, then there’s a very real chance that he will find himself without an opponent for the event.
This will lump on a further three or four months to the current total of 15 months that he has gone without a fight.
If Machida does accept then Evans finds himself being forced to accept a rematch with an opponent that thoroughly destroyed him in their first encounter, on three and a bit weeks notice after having spent the past few months preparing for a fighter with a vastly different fighting style.
While there is certainly bad luck at play, a fair share of the blame in this situation falls squarely on Evans’ shoulders.
After his high profile, unanimous decision victory over Quinton “Rampage” Jackson back in May of last year, Evans was anointed as the next challenger to Mauricio “Shogun” Rua’s recently captured light heavyweight title.
However, Rua suffered a serious knee injury in his title victory over Machida so he was forced to take a lengthy period off in order to recuperate.
Much to the disappointment and bemusement of UFC president, Dana White, Evans opted to sit out and preserve his title shot instead of risking it by fighting again.
“When (Rashad) said he was going to sit out and wait for Shogun; I said your insane.” White was quoted as saying.
“If you truly believe that you’re the best in the world, you should be ready to fight anybody because if you win the title, these are the guys that are coming at you anyway.
“You might as well stay active; you might as well make money. Fighters have a very small window of opportunity and this kid is just letting the window close.”
Shogun eventually recovered and the title fight was set for March of this year but it was Evans who got injured this time, and the title shot went to training partner and now champion, Jon Jones.
Evans was then set to challenge Jones for the title in a fight that seemed destined to build into a quality grudge match but misfortune struck again and a hand injury to Jones and some scheduling confusion meant Evans was assigned to meet Davis in August.
Jones will now defend his title for the first time against the last man Evans beat, Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson just under two months after UFC 133.
This year has shown that the world of Mixed Martial Arts is wildly unpredictable so there was no way for Evans to predict that his decision to sit out would backfire the way it did.
Nevertheless, his decision to not fight and wait it out took matters out of the one realm he could control, his performance in the cage.
He now finds himself with 15-months inactivity, the title shot he waited for in possession of the man he originally beat to get it and an awkward decision that could potentially do further damage to his title bid.
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