The UFC's second trip to Philadelphia took another hit over the weekend as Antonio Rogerio Nogueira's shoulder injury forced him to pull off the card. After the UFC already went to the light heavyweight well to find a replacement to fight Rashad Evans in the main event, they were unable to find someone to fight Rich Franklin on such short notice. He was pulled off the card, and Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Vitor Belfort was promoted to the co-main event.
In the space of a week, UFC 133 lost three fighters from the top of the card. The main and co-main events were supposed to settle many questions about the future of the light heavyweight division, but without Phil Davis, Franklin or Nogueira, it will no longer do that.
But the card is far from a dud. It does feature Belfort's first fight since he was kicked in the face by Anderson Silva. The rest of the main card has Jorge Rivera vs. Alessio Sakara, Rory MacDonald vs. Mike Pyle, Brian Ebersole vs. Dennis Hallman, with Alexander Gustafsson vs. Matt Hamill and Chad Mendes vs. Rani Yahya airing on Spike. Is that enough to make you order the pay-per-view or head to a bar to catch the fights?
Ao Hailin Shinya Aoki Andrei Arlovski Ricardo Arona Noboru Asahi
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