UFC 133: Antonio Rogerio Nogueira injured, Rich Franklin awaits new opponent

UFC 133 seems to be yet another event plagued by injuries and opponent changes. Recent reports have stated that now Rich Franklin is awaiting a new opponent due to Antonio Rogerio Nougueira being forced out with a shoulder injury.

UFC matchmaker Joe Silva has certainly been kept busy with this event having to find replacements for Vladimir Matyushenko, Phil Davis and also making several changes to the preliminary card.

Matyushenko was set to fight Alexander Gustafsson but has been replaced with Matt Hamill. Phil Davis also withdrew from his main event fight with Rashad Evans who will now face Tito Ortiz.

Franklin has fought a string of fellow legends in his last five fights, suffering losses to Dan Henderson, Vitor Belfort and Forrest Griffin, but gaining fight of the night honours with his victories over Chuck Liddell and Wanderlei Silva.

This is what the card looks like so far on Wikipedia without an opponent for Franklin:

• Light Heavyweight bout: Rashad Evans vs. Tito Ortiz^[1]
• Middleweight bout: Vitor Belfort vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama^[1]
• Middleweight bout: Jorge Rivera vs. Alessio Sakara^[1]
• Welterweight bout: Rory MacDonald vs. Mike Pyle^[1]

Preliminary card (Spike TV)

• Featherweight bout: Chad Mendes vs. Rani Yahya^[1]

Preliminary card (Facebook)

• Welterweight bout: Dennis Hallman vs. Brian Ebersole^[1]
• Bantamweight bout: Ivan Menjivar vs. Nick Pace^[1]
• Welterweight bout: Johny Hendricks vs. Mike Pierce^[1]
• Featherweight bout: Mike Brown vs. Nam Phan^[1]
• Middleweight bout: Rafael Natal vs. Costantinos Philippou^[1]