UFC 133 official as "Evans vs. Davis" in Philly

http://mmajunkie.com/news/23628/ufc-133-official-as-evans-vs-davis-in-philly.mma

It appears Rashad Evans (15-1-1 MMA, 10-1-1 UFC) and fellow top contender Phil Davis (9-0 MMA, 5-0 UFC) will take the headlining spot at August's UFC 133 event.

Officials recently unveiled the pay-per-view show as "UFC 133: Evans vs. Davis," which takes place Aug. 6 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.

If booked for the event, it appears a rumored fight between UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo (19-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) and Chad Mendes (10-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC) won't take the main-event slot.

The hosted its first Philly show, UFC 101, in 2009.

Evans, of course, had been slated to fight currently light-heavyweight champ Jon Jones. However, Jones ultimately pulled out of the fight with a torn right-hand ligament suffered in his March title victory over then-champ Mauricio "Shogun" Rua.

Jones was scheduled for surgery but ultimately decided against it based on a surgeon's recommendation. He could return by late summer, but the Evans vs. Davis fight will go on.

Before Jones got the booking, Evans had been in line to fight Rua, but a knee injury forced him off the card. As Rua healed from his own knee injury, Evans sat out nearly a year waiting for the bout rather than taking a non-championship fight and risking his shot at the belt. But when he lost the slot due to injury, UFC officials gave it to Jones, who ultimately won in decisive fashion.

The subsequent Jones vs. Evans booking ultimately splintered the fighters and training partners. And Evans, who's defeated Thiago Silva and Quinton Jackson since losing his belt, thinks the canceled surgery is proof Jones never wanted to fight him in the first place.

"It's obvious he doesn't want to fight," Evans told MMAjunkie.com. "Because if you don't need surgery and you're not going to have it, then why tell the UFC that you're going to have surgery and not have it?

"So pretty much what it comes down to is this guy faked a surgery. He's not fighting me. But he's so confident. He's saying he's going to destroy me and he's Jon Jones the great, but yet he doesn't even need surgery – or he's not going to have it."

Davis, a former NCAA Division I national wrestling champion, is 9-0 in his pro career, and his past five fights have come in the UFC. With victories over Brian Stann, Alexander Gustafsson, Rodney Wallace and Tim Boetsch, he began drawing comparisons to Jones. In March's UFC Fight Night 24 headliner, Davis scored one of his biggest wins yet: a hard-fought unanimous-decision victory over notable Antonio Rogerio Nogueira.

As for Aldo vs. Mendes, White mentioned the bout as a possibility following the champ's recent victory over Mark Hominick at UFC 129. While the bout seems a logical choice for UFC 134 in Aldo's native Brazil, White instead said it was a possibility for the UFC 133 card. However, no official announcement has been made.

The latest UFC 133 card now includes:

* Phil Davis vs. Rashad Evans
* Champ Jose Aldo vs. Chad Mendes (for featherweight title)*
* Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Vitor Belfort
* Rich Franklin vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
* Johny Hendricks vs. Mike Pierce
* Jorge Rivera vs. Alessio Sakara
* Mike Brown vs. Nam Phan
* Michael McDonald vs. Nick Pace
* Brian Ebersole vs. Dennis Hallman
* Riki Fukuda vs. Rafael "Sapo" Natal