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We're back this afternoon with another Ask MMATorch, featuring our responses to your questions. If you have an MMA question you'd like answered by MMATorch Editor Jamie Penick, MMATorch Columnist Rich Hansen, or someone else on the MMATorch team, please send them in to askmmatorch@gmail.com, or ask us on Twitter - @mmatorch!
Jeff S. Writes: Had Anderson Silva not come along, how much longer would Rich Franklin been Middleweight Champion and how do you think the title picture would have looked during Anderson's time? For instance, would the belt have switched a lot or would someone else have dominated?
MMATorch Editor Jamie Penick Answers: Anderson captured the title from Rich Franklin back in 2006, and was the only man to defeat Franklin until Dan Henderson took a split decision over him in 2009. In that three year stretch, Franklin won four of five fights (the loss coming to Silva), and stopped three of those opponents. Franklin was legitimately still one of the top fighters in the sport during that stretch, but two losses to Anderson Silva kept him away from the title picture.
Had Silva never entered the UFC back in 2006, it's very possible Franklin could have held onto the title through that three year stretch. Silva fought a couple of common opponents to Franklin in that time in Travis Lutter and the aforementioned Henderson, with Nate Marquardt, Patrick Cote, and Thales Leites also in that stretch in the middleweight division. Given how close the Franklin-Henderson fight was in 2009, had it happened a couple years earlier it would have been a highly competitive fight as well, one Franklin may have won.
However, when you get into the last three years, Silva's middleweight competition took a bit of a boost, and Franklin had a bit of a decline during that time. So say Franklin would have remained Champion through 2009, I think it's around that time that the parity in the division would have come into play, and we would have begun to see some title shuffling with fighters like Vitor Belfort, Yushin Okami, Demian Maia, and even Chael Sonnen battling it out on top of the field.
Franklin's remained a competitive fighter in that time, but there's been a noticeable drop off from where he was in the years prior to 2009. And one of the reasons Silva's remained on top for so long is he's proven to be leaps and bounds ahead of the field. Franklin wouldn't have been that far ahead, and it would have been a more competitive division overall without Silva there. It's all hypothetical, of course, as it's impossible to say how any of those fights would have gone, but I think without Silva there that Franklin would have had a significantly longer run as the top guy in the 185 lb. division.
Kevin W. Writes: Who do you feel is more likely to hold two belts (simultaneous or not) Jon "LeBron" Jones or Anthony "Showtime" Pettis?
MMATorch Editor Jamie Penick Answers: This one kind of depends on which one gets the opportunity, as they'd each be competitive in their different divisions. The biggest difference here, though, is that Pettis is actually booked in the other division for a title fight, and we've seen his success at 155 lbs. We know he can defeat Ben Henderson, because he's done it before. So if he defeats Jose Aldo and the UFC lets him move back up to fight Henderson, he'd have a very good chance of holding two titles at once.
On the other side of that, while Jon Jones has been the best light heavyweight to come along perhaps ever in the sport, he has no track record at heavyweight yet. It's wholly possible he's capable of moving up and immediately continuing his dominant run against bigger fighters, but that's much less of a given than Pettis continuing to have success at lightweight.
Again, it comes down to established track records. We've seen what Pettis can do at lightweight, because that's where he's been at his entire career. His question mark comes in at whether or not he can defeat Jose Aldo. If he does that, there's a good chance for him to become a two-division Champion. That said, if it's down to the two of them, I'd expect both to find a way to make it happen.
Of course, if Aldo defeats Pettis, then he's in that conversation as well, because he will be allowed to jump up to fight the UFC Lightweight Champion after that. Those are the three names who realistically have the ability and may get the opportunity to pull it off.
[Jon Jones art by Grant Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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