Rumour: Franklin moving to 205?

Dmac · 05-01-2008, 10:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MMAWeekly

Rumour: Franklin moving to 205?

Former Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight titleholder Rich "Ace" Franklin is considering a return to the light heavyweight division according to his manager, Monte Cox.

"Rich has to make a decision," Cox told MMAWeekly Radio. "We've certainly considered going to 205 and seeing how he does up there."

Franklin obtained the middleweight championship at UFC 53 by defeating Evan Tanner. He lost the belt to current champion Anderson "The Spider" Silva at UFC 64 and was defeated again by Silva in a rematch at UFC 77.

"He's fought almost everybody in the 185-pound division," said Cox. "There are some guys that he could fight, but if he beats them it knocks them out of title contention. And nobody is looking to see Rich and Anderson Silva 3 right now, including me."

Franklin competed as a light heavyweight for the first half of his career losing only once, to the still undefeated Lyoto Machida, but hasn't fought at 205 pounds since 2004.

"It's one of those deals where he's such a big star, which helps. He's loved everywhere he goes, a big ovation in Canada and all that. But he's not helping the 185-pound division right now by beating everybody up in it," commented Cox.

"We've talked about going to 205 and how would he match up with some of those guys, with a Forrest Griffin or a Keith Jardine. I think there're some really good fights. There's a whole bunch of 205's that I think would be interesting."

He continued, "In the end, we do what the UFC wants. If they want us to try 205, we're up for it. If they want to keep us at 185, then we'll do that too."

Franklin is coming off a win in the middleweight division over Travis Lutter at UFC 83 and isn't expected back in action for another three to four months.

I don't know how much of a good idea this is, he gets easily overpowered by Silva, in the LHW division he would get thrown around like a rag doll in my estimation.

Twist of Suffy · 05-01-2008, 05:47 PM

It'd be the same when he faces Wanderlie Silva, he'll clinch him knee the fuck out of him and that'll be it.

There's no escaping the clinch for Rich.

Dmac · 05-02-2008, 05:08 AM

I guess he's thinking that because he can't beat Anderson that he would be better in another weight class but maybe he would be better dropping not stepping up.

Twist of Suffy · 05-02-2008, 09:46 AM

There's no way he could drop all the way to welterweight he weights like over 200 anyways walking.

Dmac · 05-02-2008, 06:36 PM

Well yeah but to me it is either than or staying at MW below AS.

Twist of Suffy · 05-03-2008, 12:30 AM

There's no way he could fight at welterweight no way in hell, he should try 205 because he's not going to beat Silva, it's like Nog and Fedor.

Dmac · 05-05-2008, 09:46 AM

The problem with that is that he started at 205 and couldn't cut it there, thus moving down.

Twist of Suffy · 05-05-2008, 06:35 PM

He's improved a lot since then, he could be a force at 205 if he trains outside of Gurgel entirely.

Dmac · 05-05-2008, 06:36 PM

He's too nice of a guy, I suppose that taking a beating at 205 could be good after all to drive him away from Gurgel.

da one enigma · 05-05-2008, 07:36 PM

He's big for a middleweight and I think a move up isn't a bad idea for him. Just cause Spider tooled him at MW doesn't mean he'll be a failure at LHW. It's actually a smart decision cause there's a lot more money matchups and attention getters at LHW than there are at MW for Ace.

I'm in full support of the move especially since he can't do much at MW with Silva dominating that division.