UFC 99 IS AT 195, BUT 205 IS FRANKLIN'S HOME
Rich Franklin has caught the catchweight fever, but don’t expect him to fall below 205 pounds for the foreseeable future.
This Saturday, the former middleweight champion headlines UFC 99 with Wanderlei Silva at 195 pounds, 10 lighter than his previous two outings. For the third time, he’s crossing time zones for a big fight, this one at the Lanxess Arena in Cologne, Germany.
Silva walks around between 210 and 220 pounds and is on his way down to middleweight.
Both have agendas in their divisions.
For Franklin, it’s a chance to climb the ladder once again. At middleweight, his prospects were slim.
“Basically, (the UFC) made it pretty clear to me that they were putting me in a gatekeeper position,” said Franklin. “I couldn’t fight top contenders because they didn’t want me to fight Anderson (Silva) again. Me fighting top contenders could possibly eliminate title matches and that’s not something they were interested in doing."
The 205-pound division has seen the title change hands four times since the end of Chuck Liddell’s reign in May 2007.
“From my position, it looked like I was going to end up fighting guys on the back end of their title losses, which was something I definitely wasn’t interested in doing for the rest of my career," continued Franklin. "At which point I made the decision I would move to light heavyweight.”
Conversely, Silva’s future at 205 isn’t promising. The former Pride champ hopes a victory over Franklin will propel him towards a serious run at the 185-pound divisional title, where he has bad blood with old friend Anderson Silva.
Franklin is still trying bulk up at 205, where he fought much of his early career, so 195 won’t be a problem. He was at 210 when MMAWeekly.com spoke with him.
“As far as I’m concerned, my next fight with Wanderlei Silva, this one happens to be at a catchweight,” said Franklin. “But he’s a 205-pound fighter, so winning this fight would definitely put me in the mix of things at 205 pounds. How close to the title it puts me, I’m not really sure, and I really don’t care at this point and time. My main objective is to win the next fight that’s in front of me, and if at some point in time that turns into a title run, then great.”
So far, fighting in foreign lands has been a double-edged sword. On one hand, he gets the rock star treatment from fans that have never seen a live UFC event, much less a star in the flesh. On the other, he’s playing teacher again, getting questions from 2000 in 2009. He has to get there earlier so his body adjusts – an extra day for each time zone he crosses. Sometimes, finding the right food is hard.
Financially, it’s the same, he says.
“The UFC has put me on three cards overseas now, and when they called me and asked me to fight on the German card, there was no resistance from me,” said Frankllin. “I don’t work on a percentage of pay-per-view buys. The UFC bonuses me, they bonus me according to what they feel like I earn, I guess, and that’s that. My MO with the UFC is whatever they ask me to do, whatever they need, I do for them. They’ve always treated me well.”
It’s clear Franklin knows what to expect against Silva, though it won’t make the fight any easier.
“We’ve all seen Wanderlei fight many times,” he said. “You know what he’s going to do. He’s going to time some things and then he’s going to come in with his combinations, at which point if he lands, great. If he doesn’t land, he’s going to look to tie-up in the clinch and start throwing some knees. Those are his big tools, and you’ve seen them time and time again. If you try something new and it doesn’t work out, you’re eventually going to go back to your bread and butter anyway, and that’s what he does best, so that’s what we need to definitely make sure we’re prepared for.”
He’s unswayed by professional and armchair pundits who’ve questioned Silva’s abilities after three knockout losses.
“That thought process is out there that maybe Wanderlei has lost a step,” said Franklin. "He’s also had a nice, impressive victory as well. The punching power is still there, the destruction is still there, and anything is possible with an explosive fighter. I’m definitely not walking into this fight thinking I’m fighting a beat-down version of him. As far as I’m concerned, he’s just as dangerous now as he was when he was in Pride.”
There are several cards remaining on the UFC’s 2009 calendar, but Franklin doesn’t want to make any predictions on a return.
“It depends on how much abuse I take in this fight,” he said. “After the Henderson fight, I threw so many left leg kicks that my shin and ankle have taken a tremendous amount of abuse. I had trouble walking out of the stadium that night. It took me a while until I was back on my feet ready to train. We’ll see where I am after the fight. I would like to fight a third time this year.”
As for middleweight, only a “swan song” could bring him back to the division that brought him a UFC belt.
