UFC 133: Evans blasts Ortiz, Belfort overwhelms Akiyama

PHILADELPHIA (MMADieHards.com) – Rashad Evans proved a 14-month layoff, no title on the line and a carousel of opponents meant little to his motivation.

Evans finished off Tito Ortiz with a brutal knee to the chest and some ground strikes with 12 seconds left in the second round of their headlining fight Saturday at the Wells Fargo Center.

In the other main card matches, Vitor Belfort slugged his way to a quick knockout of Yoshihiro Akiyama, Brian Ebersole pounded out Dennis Hallman in the first round, Constantinos Philippou scored a split decision over Jorge Rivera, and Rory MacDonald scored a first-round TKO of Mike Pyle.

In his return to the Octagon, Evans originally was supposed to fight former Greg Jackson’s MMA teammate Jon Jones.  When Jones postponed the fight to allow injuries to heal, Evans decided to risk his title shot to take on Phil Davis.  Davis got injured and Ortiz, who resurrected his career from the scrap heap only weeks before with a stunning upset of Ryan Bader, was penciled in.

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