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As a fighter, Rich Franklin has seemingly done it all. He rose to prominence in the UFC’s middleweight division, capturing the Title and holding it for over a year. He has been on the cover of numerous magazines, he has been in movies and was one of the first real stars of the sport once the boom period for MMA emerged with fighters such as Matt Hughes, Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture, etc. After all his achievements and the goals that he has reached, Franklin now finds himself at a crossroads.
It's 2010, and Rich Franklin is a fighter without an identity. Depending on the fight, Franklin fights at either light-heavyweight or middleweight, or as seen in his last two fights, a catch-weight of 195 lbs. He was seemingly pushed out of the middleweight division once he lost his opportunity to gain his Championship back from the man who beat him, pound-for-pound kingpin Anderson Silva.
A move back to the light-heavyweight division seemed promising, but has seen him fight at that weight class only twice, splitting both fights with a win against Matt Hamill and a loss against Dan Henderson. His next two fights saw him fighting at 195 lbs. and winning against Wanderlei Silva, but losing his last fight via KO against Vitor Belfort. Reports have now surfaced that he may be fighting either Randy Couture this summer or Chuck Liddell, in what many would consider a showcase fight of sorts.
As MMA fans, should we feel any sort of remorse for Rich Franklin, as it seems that he just can’t really seem to find an identity as of late, or more importantly, does Rich Franklin matter in the grand scheme of things anymore? The answer is Yes and no.
It seems quite unfair to have Franklin in all sorts of showcase fights for the UFC. When he was Champion, other Champs from that time such as Matt Hughes, the aforementioned Liddell and Tim Sylvia have all gone on to lesser things. Both Hughes and Liddell have come out for showcase fights at a rate of one fight a year, while Sylvia has simply disappeared out of the MMA public eye.
Franklin can still offer true competition and does not have the wear and tear that many of his contemporaries seem to have. He is an ever evolving fighter that seems to change his game up and can be very versatile, yet he has not been able to get a fight that seems fit to propel him to the top of the division (any division really); instead he seems to only get fights that showcase “legend vs. legend” or a “name” fight.
However, he is also a former Champion that has always stated that he will fight whomever the UFC wants him to fight, and has done gracious things such as fighting at a catch-weight at the request of other fighters (such as Vitor Belfort) when in reality, it doesn’t do much for his career or ascension back to the top if he wins.
He has always taken the fights that are handed to him, and because of that “we” as fans should not feel sorry for him, but to think that he should only be relegated to showcase fights seems unfair. True, he has fought the best of the best being that his last three fights were against former Champions that are still in top shape, but at the same time they have been fights that, even with a win, would not propel him to the top near Lyoto Machida or Mauricio “Shogun” Rua.
Today, it seems that Rich Franklin is only a name that the UFC seems to bring out to get fans excited about showcase fights, yet also is one that can still offer compelling match-ups and be a threat to the light-heavyweight division. Hopefully, the UFC will see that Rich Franklin offers more than just a “name” and he can ascend back to the top, at least one more time.
[Rich Franklin art by Cory Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
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