The musical chair show that had become UFC 133 has come to an end. Instead of the reported Lyoto Machida versus Rashad Evans matchup, we will instead see another rematch. The “resurgent” Tito Ortiz has decided to step in to take the fight and finish the battle that started years ago.
At UFC 73 Ortiz was ahead on the judge’s cards but was docked an important point that cost him the victory against Evans. From that point both fighters careers have gone opposite directions. Evans went on to win the UFC light heavyweight title while Ortiz lost three straight.
The knee injury to Phil Davis opened the door for this matchup. When the news of Davis having to pull out first sprang up, Ortiz was supposedly offered the fight. Instead, he took to his Twitter account to debunk that rumor and let everyone know that he was not accepting the fight. Machida, on the other hand, was penciled in and many news outlets reported that he had taken the fight. Even still, as news constantly changes, Wednesday evening brought the release that it will be an Ortiz-Evans matchup that fans will see on August 6th.
Evans hasn’t fought since he defeated Quinton “Rampage” Jackson in May of 2010. Since then he was placed in a number of fights that have fallen through for whatever reason may be. Various knee injuries have held off Evans return to the cage and the UFC 133 main event was almost close to being off once again.
Many people believed that UFC 132 would be the last time that we Ortiz in the Octagon. However, he was able to shock the MMA community and defeat Ryan Bader in the first round. A right hand and a guillotine choke was enough to put the former collegiate wrestler away in less than two minutes.
This rematch brings an interesting story into the cage. Ortiz was very close to handing Evans the first defeat of his career. Instead both guys took drastically different paths to their career. I’m certain that the pre fight trash talking will reference this point many times again. Four years since the event is a long time for two fighters to either grow or decline and I believe this matchup is going to be a harsh example of that. I don’t think it will be a stand up battle with many exchanges. Instead I expect to see a grind out victory, much the way Matt Hamill was able to do so at UFC 121.
The last 24 hours have exposed how quickly MMA news outlets will jump on a story and report information that may or may not be confirmed. UFC 133 has now added an important fight to the card. Ortiz-Evans may not be an exciting fight of the night, but I’m seriously interested in seeing both the build up and the final result of this contest.
