With the announcement late Saturday night that UFC light heavyweight Antônio Rogério ‘Lil’Nog’ Nogueira (19-5) had pulled out of UFC 133 due to an injury, promotion officials were left with just three weeks to find a new opponent for former UFC champ Rich ‘Ace’ Franklin (28-6, 1NC).Word came down Sunday afternoon that there would be no replacement fighter to step in at the last minute, like Tito Ortiz is doing against Rashad Evans for the main event of UFC 133. So UFC officials have simply decided to pull Franklin from the card and will move another fight into the nights co-main event.
Here is the scoop from UFC.com.
A third light heavyweight in a week has been forced to withdraw from UFC 133 – Dana White confirmed today via Twitter that Antonio Rogerio Nogueria is out of the August 6 fight against Rich Franklin due to an injury. The bout will not replaced, and the Vitor Belfort vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama bout will be moved to the co-main event slot, while the welterweight battle between Dennis Hallman and Brian Ebersole has been moved to the main card.UFC 133: Evans vs. Ortiz is scheduled to take place on Aug. 6 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The evening features four preliminary bouts to be streamed on Facebook, two will be shown on Spike TV, and five bout pay-per-view main card.
Belfort is coming off a UFC middleweight title loss to Anderson Silva last February at UFC 126, while Akiyama has lost two in a row while earning three straight “Fight of the Night” bonuses.
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