Franklin

Frankly, Not Sounding Like a Champion - It wasn’t but three years ago that former UFC Middleweight champion Rick Franklin was sitting on top of the MMA world. He compiled eight straight victories, in a watered down division, in capturing the belt and forced the UFC’s hand to scour the world to add much needed talent into the division. Then on October 14, 2006 Anderson Silva turned Franklin, his career and the UFC 185lb. division upside down, literally.Silva represented the toughest opponent that Franklin had faced since his only professional loss to Lyoto Machida nearly three years prior. Not much went right for the champion once the bell rang that night, as Silva came out with guns blazing and dominated Franklin from start to pulverizing finish. He knocked out the champ in the 1stRound to take the belt.

“Basically after the first fight I thought to myself that I just really needed to realign my whole training system and make some major changes,” Franklin told UFC.com.

Like any true champion, Franklin knew that he didn’t perform to his highest abilities and wanted a rematch. However, he knew that given the fashion in which he lost he would have to fight his way to one. After posting two fairly impressive wins over up and comers Jason MacDonald and Yushin Okami, the former champ earned a second crack at Silva.

Franklin not only earned himself a shot at redemption, but it was served to him on a silver platter. The rematch was to take place right in the former champ’s back yard of Cincinnati, OH. What more could he have asked for? The stage was set, unfortunately Franklin was not as Silva once again dominated him in a fight that looked eerily similar to their first.

“The second fight, I did everything I could do to win that fight – I left town, I was completely focused, I had a good training camp, and everything went the way that it should have,” he said. “Long story short, he ended up clipping me and I end up losing the fight, and that’s just how things go.”

You would think that after getting manhandled the way he did, Franklin’s career would be finished. Then, Franklin goes and puts on a performance like he did against Travis Lutter.  He definitely took a step forward in his attempt to put back the pieces of his career. However, it is the former champ’s comments about a possible third bout with Silva somewhere down the line that were precarious.

“There’s always that part of me now that says yeah, I definitely think that given another chance I can beat Anderson, but that may not come around,” said Franklin. “Quite frankly, even if I think I can beat Anderson and even if I can beat Anderson, the question you have to ask yourself is, ‘is that a fight the fans really want to see?’ I’m not sure if Franklin-Silva III is a marketable fight. I don’t know if the majority of fans out there want to see us fight a third time. Most of them might say ‘You know what? I’ve already seen that; I’m not interested in watching it again.’ So you take what you learned from those losses and I made the changes that I believe are going to move my fight career forward, whether I fight him again or not.”

The fans don’t want to see it because it wouldn’t be marketable? That does not sound like champion talk. I don’t know of any champion that would hide behind what the fans’ wants are, for a shot at redemption. Former UFC Heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell has lost to current champion Quinton Rampage Jackson twice, but do you think that he is not pushing for another opportunity to dance with the man that knocked him out for his belt?

This leads me to believe that perhaps Franklin was never a true champion. Perhaps he was just holding the belt until the real champion got here, and now that he is here, there Rich can just go back to being a decent fighter in a weak division. Frankly (pun intended), Rich sounds like he is scared to further jeopardize his legacy. Little does he know, a true champion is not judged on if he loses or wins, but how he reacts after losing.

For Franklin’s sake, I hope the UFC believes a Franklin/Silva 3 isn’t marketable, because he sure doesn’t seem to want it to happen.

(Picture courtesy of MMAWeekly.com)