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By Frank Hyden, MMATorch contributor A lot has been made about Anderson Silva making the move up to the Light Heavyweight division. Quite frankly, this news deserves all the buzz it's generated. Who among us wouldn't want to see Silva fight Chuck Liddell? How about Silva vs. Forrest Griffin? Not to mention Lyoto Machida, Keith Jardine, Stephan Bonnar, and Wanderlei Silva (my money's on Silva in that fight), to name a few. Point is, this is something very exciting and we can all talk about a fighter being the champion in 2 different weight classes again. However, someone else is making a similar move that could potentially be almost as huge a deal.
Rich Franklin is making his return to Light Heavyweight on September 6 to fight Matt Hamill. I've heard some talk that this will be a tough fight for Franklin. That depends on which Rich Franklin shows up that night. If he's in that same mindset he was in before fighting Anderson Silva the first time then it will be a tough fight. But if he's the same guy who ran the middleweight division until Silva showed up then Matt Hamill has absolutely no chance. If Rich brings his A game than Hamill will get smoked like a cigar. Matt hasn't fought a guy on Franklin's level but he should be able to use this as a learning experience.
It's ironic that Rich Franklin has beaten everyone in the Middleweight division except Anderson Silva so he's moving up to Light Heavyweight. Then comes news that Anderson Silva is also moving up to Light Heavyweight for similar reasons. What ties these two together so? Are they fated to meet once more, this time in the Light Heavyweight division? It almost seems as though this is a cliched movie script that sees Rich Franklin finally avenge his losses to Anderson Silva. Hollywood couldn't write a more overworked script. Of course, reality rarely follows such stereotypical fare and the odds are that Silva would beat Franklin again if they fought a 3rd time.
Moving up a weight class will provide a few new challenges for Rich to try to overcome. He's probably not as knowledgeable about Light Heavyweight fighters as he is about Middleweight guys. Also, the average Light Heavyweight fighter might be stronger then the average Middleweight fighter. I say might because strength can be very deceptive. We'll all seen the power of Matt Hughes and I'd wager he's stronger than most MMA fighters despite being a Welterweight.
However, one aspect has been brought up by several people and it just might be a case of assumption leading to misinformation. It's believed that the average Light Heavyweight fighter is taller than the average Middleweight fighter. However, a cursory scan of the UFC website shows that it appears as though there isn't as big a height disparity as one might assume. It also helps that Rich Franklin is 6'1" so the height issue may be a non-issue.
Rich Franklin moving up in weight is in part an attempt to get away from Anderson Silva. With Silva following Franklin to Light Heavyweight status let's just hope that there's enough different opponents for them to go around.
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