After a whirlwind two days, the lineup for UFC 133 had been finalized. The event will be headlined by a light heavyweight bout between former champions Rashad Evans and Tito Ortiz. ‘UFC 133: Evans vs. Ortiz' will be held on August 6, 2011 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Following Tuesday's injury withdrawal of expected headliner Phil Davis, Dana White and the UFC quickly embarked on a see-saw effort to find a new competitor on extremely short notice. The frustrating process began with former champion Lyoto Machida accepting the fight, only to turn it down hours later due to increased monetary demands. Ortiz followed, rejecting the spot before having a change of heart and accepting 24 hours later.
Also featured on the card is a light heavyweight bout between Rich Franklin and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, as well as a middleweight bout between Vitor Belfort and Yoshihiro Akiyama. Jorge Rivera vs. Alessio Sakara and Rory McDonald vs. Mike Pyle round out the pay-per-view action.
Main Card:
Light Heavyweight: (#4 LHW) Rashad Evans vs. Tito Ortiz
Light Heavyweight: (#13 LHW) Rich Franklin vs. (#11 LHW) Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
Middleweight: (#7 MW) Vitor Belfort vs. (#21 MW) Yoshihiro Akiyama
Middleweight: Jorge Rivera vs. Alessio Sakara
Welterweight: (#24 WW) Rory MacDonald vs. (#16 WW) Mike Pyle
Preliminary card (to be broadcast on SPIKE):
Light Heavyweight: (#19 LHW) Vladimir Matyushenko vs. (#17 LHW) Alexander Gustafsson
Featherweight: (#3 FW) Chad Mendes vs. (#17 FW) Rani Yahya
Preliminary card:
Welterweight: Dennis Hallman vs. Brian Ebersole
Middleweight: Rafael Natal vs. Costantinos Philippou
Bantamweight: Ivan Menjivar vs. Nick Pace
Welterweight: Johny Hendricks vs. Mike Pierce
Featherweight: (#22 FW) Mike Brown vs. Nam Phan
All rankings are courtesy of USA Today/SB Nation's consensus rankings last updated on June 30th.