"The City of Brotherly Love" is rapidly becoming the "The Cursed City of Hurt" for the world's largest fight promotion.
UFC 133, which is scheduled to go down Aug. 6 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has already been embroiled in turmoil since Phil Davis suffered an injury and was forced to pull out of the main event. It looked likely that both Tito Ortiz and Lyoto Machida would not accept a booking to replace him so UFC needed a third option.
As it turned out, Ortiz reconsidered and plan C became unnecessary. Promotion President Dana White revealed today that Vladimir Matyushenko was, in fact, plan C and he would step in to fight Rashad Evans if needed.
Guess what? Now he's injured too.
Thankfully, it wasn't nearly as difficult to find a replacement for him to step in and fight Alexander Gustafsson, as Matt Hamill has agreed to fill the void, according to the company's Twitter.
Hamill is looking to rebound from a tough unanimous decision loss to Quinton Jackson at UFC 130 this past May 28. It was the first jump up to the big time for "The Hammer" and he came up remarkably short, failing on all 17 of his takedown attempts.
Time to get back on the hog.
Gustafsson, 24, is a hot young prospect out of Alliance and Gladius MMA who's lost just once in his budding professional career. That defeat came at the hands of fellow rising contender Phil Davis back at UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi, a second round submission.
The good news for fight fans is "The Mauler" earned his nickname the hard way and has only ever gone to the scorecards in one of his fights.
His first fight on American goes down in Philadelphia. Welcome to America, champ!
In case you haven't been paying attention, UFC 133 has been torn to pieces and rebuilt from the ground up, as the main event will now feature a Tito Ortiz vs. Rashad Evans rematch that could determine the next contender to the light heavyweight title.
Also on the card, Vitor Belfort returns to take on Yoshihiro Akiyama and Rich Franklin will sling leather against Antonio Rogerio Nogueira.
For all the latest UFC 133 news and notes -- and there are plenty -- click here.
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