Fighter Breakdown: Rich Franklin

Name: Rich Franklin

Nickname: Ace

Weight class: Middleweight or Light-heavy weight

Martial arts background: Early in his career, Franklin presumably taught himself grappling through various instructional videos that he found on the internet. Aside from that, he's a brown belt in Jiu-Jitsu under Jorge Gurgel and has been training Muay Thai and boxing for most of his mixed martial arts career.

Striking breakdown: Rich fights southpaw, which is generally an advantage against orthodox strikers because they don't really know how to deal with it. He likes to throw combinations from the outside and is good about following up his shots, although he tends to miss a lot more when he's unleashing a heavy combo. His right straight - left hook combo is particularly dangerous. Along with his punches, he has powerful kicks, especially to the legs and midsection. He broke Henderson's ribs with body kicks and TKOd Matt Hamill with a liver kick. Defensively, he has shown a strong chin and good head movement, although three fourths of his losses have been by TKO.

Grappling breakdown: Franklin has above average takedown defense, but can be taken down by elite wrestlers, such as Dan Henderson. When he is on his back, he has an active guard and has submitted many of his opponents, the armbar being the most commom. Offensively, Rich has unrelenting, albeit average, takedowns. He has good ground and pound and submissions from the top, although he rarely uses the latter; in fact, Franklin hasn't scored any submissions in his recent career.

Strengths: Rich has very good cardio and sets a strong pace for the fight. He is known to wear his opponents down and make them pay for being active early. His body and leg kicks help hasten this process, so he can make people gas even in three round fights (see Henderson and Wanderlei Silva). His powerful and versatile striking has been a major component in a lot of his wins, although his ground game is very underrated.

Weaknesses: While he has an above average chin, Rich has shown that he is able to be TKOd. The Thai clinch is his worst enemy, especially in the hands of Anderson Silva where he was finished with it twice. He has also shown some anxiety in fights, specifically against Anderson, the man who utterly destroyed him in their first fight. Dan Henderson, an elite wrestler, was able to hold Franklin down and neutralize his ground game, although this doesn't reveal much given that Dan is an olympic-level wrestler.

Gameplan: His gameplan is to come out strong with a barrage of strikes and to systematically pick his opponent apart standing. He will try to avoid the takedown, but won't be too worried if he is taken down because he does have the ability to finish fights off his back, as he has shown numerous times. In the early rounds he will likely favor leg and body kicks unless he can get his timing down early and is comfortable with his hands. Most of Franklin's latest wins have been by KO or TKO.

Notable wins and losses:

His wins against Evan tanner are note-worthy because the first one was his UFC debut and the second one was a tough fight in which he obtained the UFC middleweight title. Franklin was hurt early in the second fight but managed to come back and dominate Tanner for the better part of four rounds before gaining a TKO victory.

His highlight reel KO of Nate Quarry is noteworthy because it is one of his only one punch knock outs and the most brutal one of his career.

His two losses against Anderson Silva effectively nullified any chance Franklin has of obtaining the MW title while Silva holds it, effectively forcing him to move up to 205. The losses are significant in that they showed Franklin's weakness against a strong clinch grappler and showed some part of mental weakness; that is, he was visibly anxious against Anderson in the second fight. That said, Franklin showed that he is always tough and, surprisingly, proved that he had a solid chin given that he was able to take several knees from The Spider.


His win against a highly regarded Matt Hamill showed that he can still be competitive at 205 and was a showcase of his kicking ability.

Future: I don't think that Franklin will capture the light-heavyweight title, and if he loses to Machida he will be resigned to superfights against contenders. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it does mean that he probably won't be a champion ever again. If Silva vacates the MW throne, however, then Franklin has a good shot at regaining it if he can get past Marquardt and Henderson (at 185 he should beat Henderson; in fact, I am of the opinion that he defeated him in the first fight). That said, he can definitely be top 5 at LHW and is in the top 5 at MW.