Injuries Continue to Plague UFC 133 Card: Sakara Pulls out of Fight

Alessio Sakara has pulled out of his scheduled fight against Jorge Rivera at UFC 133 due to an injury.

MMA Fighting reported that Sakara had been pulled from the fight, and ESPN has confirmed that it was a torn ACL that has caused Sakara's withdrawal from the card.

This marks the third time that a fight between the two has had to be cancelled. They were first due to meet at UFC 118, however, Rivera was sidelined due to an injury.

The two were then scheduled to meet at UFC 122, but this time it was Sakara that had to withdraw from the fight. He was suffering from flu like symptoms that emerged on the day of the fight.

With such short notice, the UFC were desperate to find a replacement for Sakara to face Rivera.

In fact, Rivera actually made a suggestion as to who should replace Sakara, and his suggestion was Constantinos Phillippou, who Rivera thinks will be a good match-up for him.

"I don't need the excitement, to be honest," Rivera said. "It's coming and I'm sure he'll be pumped. He's going from the under-card 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."

It has since been confirmed by the UFC that Phillippou will be the one to face Rivera, at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.

This is not the first fight on the UFC 133 card that has been affected by injury. Davis and Nogueira were both forced to pull out of their respective fights due to injuries.