 vs
UFC
77 Hostile Territory
Anderson Silva vs Rich Franklin
Saturday October 20, 2007 10PM EST
Silva (-190)
Bet
it now at Bookmaker.com
Has
Rich "Ace" Franklin (22-2-1) improved enough to beat
Anderson "Spider" Silva (19-4)? The answer is no.
Since his lost to Silva almost a year ago, he has had ok performance
wins against Jason MacDonald (UFC
68: The Uprising) and Yushin Okami (UFC
72: Victory). His last fight with Okami was not very
interesting nor is it at the same level that it needs to be to
defeat Silva. The UFC and Dana White desperately want Franklin
to win the title back because he is a more marketable guy than
Silva is. Why else would they give a challenge the home field
crowd versus the champion? Despite this Silva should have little
trouble with Frank as there are much better fighters that Silva
could be facing like Paulo Filho, Denis Kang (if Dana White will
spend the money)
The
last time these two guys faced each other, it was such a one-sided
affair that Silva basically beat him down so bad and that he actually
rearranged Franklin’s face. Franklin was dominated with
approximately 20 unanswered knees from the Muay Thai-clinch followed
by kicks and a knee to the face at 2:49 of the first round. Following
that beating, Franklin underwent surgery due to the nasal fracture
he received in his fight against Silva.
Franklin
does not have the striking power or skill to match Silva. His
kicks and punches are so devastating that Franklin will have to
shoot in and go to the ground. Franklin has a very weak and suspect
ground game and Silva is a black belt in Brazilian Jujitsu which
he earned in 2005 from Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, the best heavyweight
jujitsu practitioner on the ground in the world, while Franklin
trains BJJ with Jorge Gurgel, a guy who cannot even make it out
of the Ultimate Fighter reality series.
In reality, I’ve never thought Franklin was a good fighter.
He has not fought top level MMA fighters and the UFC put him on
a petal stool because of his marketability. He’s just a
nice looking pretty boy which is marketable to fans that are not
all that familiar with mixed martial arts. He has fought some
ok fighters like David
Loiseau, Edwin
Dewees, Evan
Tanner, Marvin Eastman, Travis Fulton and Aaron Brink
as well as some not very good fighters like Nathan Quarry and
other unknowns. Don’t let Franklin’s 22 and 2 record
fool you as he has never been able to match his skill level with
top level fighters that are equal to or better than him. He’s
not that great of a fighter, period. He has only fought two really
good fighters in his career and he lost badly to both of them.
Anderson Silva humiliated him and he lost to Lyoto Machida by
strikes.
Despite
fighting in his home crowd of Cincinnati Ohio, Franklin will get
another bad beating by one of the best fighters in the world.
He cannot match his grappling and there is no way he will try
to stand and trade punches with Silva. Once a member of Chute
Boxe Academy, he later left and formed the Muay Thai Dream Team
and now has a new team called Black House (Casa Preta in Portuguese)
with Lyoto Machida, Vitor Belfort, Assuerio Silva, and the Nogueira
brothers. Everyone knows Franklin can’t do stand up and
strike with Silva so the game plan will be to fight him on the
ground. However, Silva trains with Lyoto Machida, Vitor Belfort,
and the Nogueira brothers who could all beat Franklin on the ground
in their sleep.
Bottom
Line: Silva has done it all in mixed martial arts. He
has fought in PRIDE
Fighting Championships, Shooto, Rumble on the Rock,
and is still the Cage Rage World middleweight champion. He has
fought professional boxing matches and been there done that in
the world of MMA. Franklin on the other hand was a high school
math teacher before becoming a full time fighter and learned how
to fight through instructional video tapes.
I
like Franklin as a person and but not as a fighter against a top
quality opponent like Anderson Silva.
Bet
on the UFC at Bookmaker.com - Where The UFC Line Originates
»
Free Mixed Martial Arts Picks Archive «
|
UUFC 97 Redemption