Rich Franklin ready to play the role of spoiler at UFC 99
Published by Zach Arnold on June 10th, 2009 in Current Events

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Watching the UFC 99 Countdown show on Spike TV last night, it was hard to figure out why Rich Franklin was facing Wanderlei Silva this Saturday in Germany. What, with all this talk about an Anderson Silva/Wanderlei Silva feud and Rich settling in at 205 pounds, it was curious to see how UFC would portray Saturday night’s main event as a fight that should mean something to the casual fan.

Conventional wisdom says that Franklin should be able to beat Wanderlei and Las Vegas believes this, too. Franklin is anywhere from a -150 to -170 favorite on various sportsbooks, wherewas Wanderlei is anywhere from
+115 to +135. Don’t get me wrong, the line being as close as it is represents the fact that this fight is not as easy to predict as most would imagine. Franklin is coming off of wins against Travis Lutter and Matt Hamill and a split decision loss to “Decision” Dan Henderson. On the hype special, Franklin was portrayed as needing a win as much as Wanderlei does. Not really.

15 minutes into the hype special and it became clear that if you simply watch Franklin vs. Wanderlei on Saturday to be entertained, you will be very happy. If you try to read into future matchmaking plans for Rich after this bout, don’t bother. What we do know, however, is that win or lose, Wanderlei Silva is going to fight Anderson Silva very soon at 185 pounds (Middleweight).

For half the hype special pertaining to Franklin vs. Wanderlei, the storyline was built around Anderson Silva helping out Rich in training. Anderson administered two vicious beatings to Rich in the past, so to see him offer his rival some help is surprising. After all, Anderson and Wanderlei came from the Chute Boxe Academy in Brazil which dominated PRIDE for years. The storyline is that Anderson felt disrespected by Wanderlei and that he left Chute Boxe to join the new army Black House. Anderson claims that this cost him bookings in PRIDE, which Wanderlei denies having any involvement in. Therefore, there’s bad blood and now Anderson wants to help out his former rival beat his arch nemesis. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, apparently.

If you are a Wanderlei Silva fan and are hoping for a good reason for him to beat Rich Franklin, take heart in the fact that Wanderlei was the face of Chute Boxe and that super-aggressive muay thai fight style with the clinches and the kill-or-be-killed attitude. If there is a fight style that will give Rich trouble, it’s this kind of style. I don’t expect Franklin vs. Wanderlei to go to a decision, although I could be wrong. This fight likely ends in late R1 or mid R2.

The storyline pushed on the hype special for Rich Franklin is that he’s now training with Matt Hume in Seattle at AMC Pankration. Interesting that Maurice Smith’s name was never mentioned here. Nonetheless, Hume is one of the best trainers in the business and is a step up in what Rich was working with previously. Hume was a judge at most PRIDE events and understands what works and doesn’t work against such an aggressive fighter like Wanderlei. While a win over Wanderlei won’t derail any future Silva/Silve grudge fight, Franklin could certainly build some momentum with a win here. It was interesting how UFC tried to push the UFC vs. PRIDE aspect of this fight. It’s a good fight and a fight people want to see, but I’m not sure just how many people want to pay money to see it.

In watching Franklin on the Spike TV special, you can clearly see that he is in great physical shape. However, he takes such a beating in fights and also absorbs a lot of punishment in training. Wanderlei is in the same position as well, so it will be interesting to see whose gas tank lasts the longest (put your money on Rich winning that aspect of the fight). When it comes to hunger, both men have it although Wanderlei tried to down play it with his “I don’t care if I win or lose” statements on television. Nonetheless, this fight means more to Wanderlei given the fact that he’s lost four of his last five fights — to Mirko Cro Cop, to Dan Henderson, to Chuck Liddell, and to Quinton Jackson. All big names who delivered a lot of punishment to Silva over the last couple of years. A win for Wanderlei here means a lot more in terms of momentum for his fight against Anderson in the future than Rich winning here since Rich is a proven commodity who isn’t going to go up or down right now in the 205-pound weight class.

Let’s say that Franklin pulls out the win here. What’s next for him? Rampage Jackson and Rashad Evans are ‘married to each other’ (a term meaning they’re booked together in a long program coming up) and Machida looks to be facing Shogun soon. If Forrest Griffin loses to Anderson Silva in August, then a match between Griffin and Rich at the end of the year makes sense. It’s also a fight that will sell some tickets. Given that Rich has already beaten Matt Hamill, it’s not as if taking a fight against Keith Jardine or Thiago Silva is going to mean a lot career-wise. Given how many fights Rich has left in his body, he will more than likely demand a big name opponent (should he beat Wanderlei on Saturday in Germany). Maybe Rich would be crazy enough to take on Machida, given that Machida got a big win over him on NYE 2003 in Japan and the revenge factor might be there for him to take the challenge.

Purely as a spectacle, the fight between Rich Franklin and Wanderlei Silva will be entertaining — even if it goes to a decision. However, with both men now in different weight classes and both men finding themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place in terms of future matchmaking, I’m not sure how much meaning you can put on this fight in terms of future importance with the company’s matchmaking. Nonetheless, it should be very fun to watch and worthy of headlining the UFC’s first event in Germany.