UFC 133 Shake Up Continues, Sakara Out / Rivera To Face Philippou

Added on Jul 25, 2011 by John Petit in

UFC & MMA

Jorge Rivera now has a new opponent. He confirmed on the mma hour that Alessio Sakara is injured and they are now looking for a new opponent. Rivera admitted he thought it was joke when he got the call, but was then told the fight was indeed off.

This is the third time the fight has been called off. They were supposed to fight at UFC 118 but an injury to Rivera to withdraw. It was rescheduled as the co main event of UFC 122, but the day of the fight Sakara came down with the flu. Rivera has confirmed that Sakara has an ACL injury, and once again the fight is off.

Rivera is now facing Constantinos Philippou, and Rivera said this isn’t something he really needs right now. He said “I don’t need the excitement, to be honest. It’s coming and I’m sure he’ll be pumped. He’s going from the undercard to main card, fighting a bigger name. He’ll come ready to fight. But this keeps me on my toes. I just want to have a good fight and give the fans something to cheer about and get excited about.”

Rivera is coming off of a controversial loss to Bisbing. Bisping threw an illegal knee, and Rivera decided he would continue to fight. He was finished a few minutes later. After the fight Rivera said he may retire from fighting. Now he is saying he will be more cautious with his future, “Honestly what I was saying is I live day-to-day. If I were to get smashed I’d contemplate it. If I smash him, I’ll take the next fight and keep rolling. I’m not going to make rash decisions ahead of time. We’ll see how it goes.”

UFC 133 has been drastically changed over the past few weeks. As of right now, here is how the card stands.

Main card

Light Heavyweight bout:
Rashad Evans vs. Tito Ortiz

Middleweight bout:
Vitor Belfort vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama

Welterweight bout:
Dennis Hallman vs. Brian Ebersole

Middleweight bout:
Jorge Rivera vs. Costantinos Philippou

Welterweight bout:
Rory MacDonald vs. Mike Pyle

Preliminary card (Spike TV)

Light Heavyweight bout:
Matt Hamill vs. Alexander Gustafsson

Featherweight bout:
Chad Mendes vs. Rani Yahya

Preliminary card (Facebook)

Bantamweight bout:
Ivan Menjivar vs. Nick Pace