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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Rich Franklin suffered a broken ulna in his left arm in his first round knockout victory over Chuck Liddell on Saturday night in Vancouver at UFC 115, and the former Middleweight Champion is now headed to Las Vegas to undergo surgery on the injury, according to a report from MMAJunkie.com.
As MMAJunkie explains, the ulna bone "runs the length of the forearm and is parallel to the radius bone. The bone gets thinner in diameter as it gets closer to the wrist, which makes it vulnerable to hard kicks."
Franklin blocked a kick a couple of minutes into the round, and the blow from Liddell caused the break. Franklin fought through the injury for the remainder of the round, however, and managed to find Liddell's chin with a right hand with only seconds remaining in the fight.
He'll now see an orthopedic surgeon in Las Vegas to repair the damage caused by Liddell's kick. The injury is actually similar to one suffered by Randy Couture at UFC 74 against Gabriel Gonzaga.
Franklin told Joe Rogan in the post fight interview he had no intention of quitting, though admitted at the night's post fight press conference he wasn't sure what would have happened had he went into the second and third rounds of the fight.
"I definitely wasn't going to quit – I've broken bones before and continued fighting – but there was part of me that was wondering what kind of strategy I was going to use to win the fight with a broken left arm in the second and third rounds."
Luckily for Franklin, his right hand found the mark and he finished the fight before the he needed to figure that out.
Penick's Analysis: I think with Franklin needing time to recover from this injury, and Forrest Griffin currently recovering from the shoulder surgery he underwent last month, the timing should work out for both of them for a fall/winter showdown. Dana White already said they were considering Griffin as the next fight for the winner of this one, so putting this fight later in the year gives both plenty of time for a full recovery. I think it would be a great idea to put this fight into the co-main event slot on the December card with the Georges St. Pierre vs. Josh Koscheck bout for the Welterweight Championship. That would be a fantastic one-two punch of a card and would do massive business at the end of the year.
Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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