Watching a special "UFC Unleashed" episode outlining past fights of Rich Franklin last night on Spike and I gotta say, the guy is average as hell. How he became a champion is beyond me. You see him against Tanner and you'd think Franklin had never been into a boxing gym in his life. Totally flawed, crap footwork, stupid ass looking hooks, his idea of a jab is jumping in with a stretched out arm and hoping contact is made. The dude f*ckin' sucks. The UFC did a hell of a job marketing this guy as a great fighter at 185. Anderson Silva completely exposed him as a complete joke of a fighter. Every flaw imaginable in Franklin was brought to the forefront. I get pissed off when I read back on the posts that people made 3 or so years ago dick-riding Franklin as one of the greatest fighters at 185. He's junk! Beating old man Ken Shamrock is what put him on the map. Dana White rode Franklin's cock only because he was a ratings grabber with a nice looking face while being a white american male. Funny to see Dana's reaction when Anderson tore Franklin a new asshole. If Henderson has anything left after what Anderson did to him, then he should put Franklin's sloppy overrated ass into the grave.
Amongst the UFC noobs, that could be the case since the UFC did a damn good job hyping up their boy Franklin the way they did. Did Franklin even land a strike on Silva in either fight?
No he didn't .I'm just saying.Franklins stock went up just to justify Silva's claim as the best p4p fighter in the world.....because he beat Rich Franklin::
We'll find out how good Franklin really is against Henderson. Forrest Griffin is the definition of overachiever.
Actually Franklin caught him with a great shot in the first fight, and it pissed Silva off. Silva did a funky little shimmy, and then he got deadly serious and crushed Franklin. Franklin is top three at 185 in the UFC. Other than Henderson and Silva, who's likely to beat him? Bear in mind, I said IN the UFC. I think Matt Lindland would have a great shot.
I would give him the number 3 spot as well in the UFC behind Henderson and Silva. Lindland would have a great shot at beating Franklin as well as Mousasi, Le, and several others outside the UFC. But lets not get crazy here. He isn't a bum, that's just foolish. A bum doesn't beat the guys he has beaten. Henderson should manhandle him though.
I feel Franklin is way ovverated and was way protected but he is a decent fighter and he has some good wins vs solid fighters, nothing spectacular in there but at least he is consistent in beating C, bordeline B, type of fighters. Unfortunuately for him, everytime he fought a A guy he was utterly uncompetitive, but now his fight with Henderson is a real opportunity for him as Henderson still got a big name but he ain't what he used to be. If he lose there it will be devastating for his career and legacy
Not sure why losing to Dan would devestate his career and legacy. Besides Silva, who else at 185 do you think can beat Dan?
Franklin is a good fighter and that's all there is to it. If you are seriously saying Franklin didn't land one punch against Silva I am 100% sure you have not seen the fights or at the very least didn't pay any attention.
Exactly. Just look at his resume. Bums don't beat those guys. His style may not be pretty, but it's effective and he wins fights.
Some people just refuse to give the Poster Boys of the UFC's explosion (Liddell, Hughes, Franklin, etc) any credit no matter what. Often, they look foolish doing so. TFK
he is still a name, though. He was sort of a poster boy for the UFC for a while. When I watched his rematch with Silva, many females in the bar were screaming for him. I just don't get it, he looks like Jim Carey with a huge forehead.
I think bec. of his 2 losses to silva that people think lowly of him. He is gud, he has great sub defense imo. and is hard to take down dats why he would do great against wretlers or sub. guys. gud strikers are the one that wud give him problems. I think that he can beat lindland.
Can't you say the same thing about any fighter on earth? They are good until they fight someone better than they are. Great post! :shit:
I don't care who you are or who you fought. When you have 30+ MMA bouts and 3 out of you 4 loses are to Silva and Machida, you're doing something right. And seriously, beating guys like Tanner, Quarry, Eastman, Shamrock, Lutter, Hammil, Okami, MacDonald or Loiseau may seem like pedestrian stuff. But to beat them all without slipping and losing against at least one of them is fairly rare in MMA except with the elite. Furthermore, I see Franklin as a guy that's done much 'learning on the job'. If you watch him 5 years ago against Evan Tanner and then last year versus Lutter, you will see two very different fighters. He seems to be constantly improving. Right now I would agree with not mentioning Franklin along with Penn, GSP or Silva. But he is certainly closer to being elite than he is to being garbage as this thread alluded.
Yes, my error. Also, it should have read "Nearly 30 MMA fights" and not "30+ MMA Fights". Sometimes my extensive research can't help avoid errors in my post. Thanks for the help on this one. Although, check out this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Franklin It does show a 4th loss for Franklin in his MMA debut. My research team has determined this is untrue. Franklin actually defeated Rob Smith at EC 31 - Extreme Challenge 31.
If Franklin beats Henderson, will you guys give him credit, or will you come up with some excuse about Hernderson being past him prime or some other nonsense? TFK
Henderson is on hormone replacement therapy! No joke. There I just gave you all an excuse. I personally have seen enough of Franklin to know that he's a good fighter. Even if he loses to Hendo, it doesn't change anything.
Exactly, the guy is nearing on 40 yet people make it seems like it is an built up excuse to consider it past it. Sure, he is still a quality opponent, but he is obviously on the wrong side of the hill.
If he lose to Henderson in a one sided fashion, it is gonna be pretty obvious that he was a protected fighter who doenst cut it at the world class level at all and who had a paper champ reign
even thought his resume is noting spectacular, you do have to give Franklin credit for being very consistent, he doesnt lose to guy worst than him