As announced previously by BJPENN.COM, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira was forced to withdrawal from his scheduled meeting with Rich Franklin at UFC 133.
While our initial report indicated that the UFC was seeking out a replacement for their co-main event attraction, it now appears as if “Ace” has been forced off the card entirely and the UFC’s attempt to find a suitable replacement on about two-week’ notice has failed.
With the exclusion of Franklin the bout between Belfort and Akiyama has been promoted to co-main event status and the preliminary bout between Hallman and Ebersole is getting a bump up to the televised portion of the pay-per-view broadcast.
UFC officials announced the news via twitter earlier today.
With the change in line-up the official UFC 133 card is as follows:
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
- By Pedro Carrasco of BJPENN.COM
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pretty sure this is flipping stupid! Franklin was one of the biggest draws on this card and you just take him off of the card….Mr.White and Mr.Silva you guys are idiots.yes idiots indeed….
Shoulda scratched belfort and had Franklin vs Akiyama! That would be a war.
I like to read you blog daily.Its awesome.