Rich Franklin will replace Vitor Belfort against Wanderlei Silva at UFC 147
Posted on May 30, 2012, 02:28 PM by Anton Gurevich
Former UFC Middleweight champion, Rich "Ace" Franklin, will step in as a replacement for Vitor Belfort, facing Wanderlei "The Axe Murderer" Silva at UFC 147 in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
Frankin was originally scheduled to face Cung Le at UFC 148 on July 7th, in a Middleweight contest. Apparently, "Ace" understands he will struggle to cut weight in time for UFC 147 (two weeks earlier), therefore the encounter with Wanderlei Silva is a 190lbs catchweight bout.
Rick Franklin and Wanderlei Silva met back at UFC 99 in Cologne, Germany (195lbs catchweight bout). Rich Franklin won a close decision, as both fighters earned Fight of the Night award. Rematch with Franklin is a good deal for Wanderlei Silva, who still gets an opportunity to avenge a loss on his record.
Here's the official announcement from UFC.com:
UFC 147 now has a new five-round main event, as former middleweight champion Rich Franklin will face "The Axe Murderer" Wanderlei Silva in a 190-pound catchweight feature. The two first met at UFC 99 in Germany, where Franklin earned a decision win and both men took home Fight of the Night bonuses.
Rich Franklin is 28-6 in his Mixed Martial Arts career, coming back from having a surgery on his injured shoulder. Franklin will turn 38 next October.
Comments
BOO why couldnt they get belcher or someone wandy hasnt already fought or leben id like to see that again if only he wasnt suspended again
you say get someone Wandy hasn't fought before, then you ask for Leben?.....
I know how to read, but you dont know how to write, so its hard to apply my reading skills, to your illiterate typing.
oouuu mr fancy book learning over here thinks he so clever with his community college grammar and typing skills ou arent we fancy
Its not a bad match up i think. It will probably be a competitive fight ,if wandy doesnt take a clean shot in the jaw.. I believe that wandy could have won the first fight if he didnt gas. It will be interesting to see those 2 going at it
I hope Wanderlei will win this war
I was really hoping for Alan Belchar
UFC 147 looking lame....Will be nice to see Daniel Sarafian and Werdum fight and that is all.
Sick fight once again but will be interesting to see if Franklin will make MW as normal or if he will have a tough time not being down there for a while.
Either way one of the best if not the best replacement fight they could've made
It's at a catch weight of 190. Not MW. I know Lombard is committed to fight Stann but I would have loved to have seen that fight. This doesn't exactly get me pumped up about this card.
Good point about catch weight
the teacher..........yeah............well.......
calling him a "teacher" u sound like chael anderson silva worked at micky d's!
and u working in a dumb-tattoo shop?
this is so ****ing dumb the UFC always has to **** up good cards. First they move bisping cuz the card was getting to stacked, then cruz got hurt and now franklin is off the card aswell...lameeee
This would be an amazing fight...five years ago.
While I like both fighters, neither of them is close to being a contender anymore. Rivals Ortiz vs. Griffin for matches way past their expiry date.
I give props to Rich Franklin for taking another fight in short notice, same as what he did when he fought Chuck.
I think the UFC did this to get a fighter with a name to headline an event, rather than have a good contender that is not known to the general public.
I'm still being optimistic about the fight and the whole card. I think I still have the UFC 146 hangover. Now that was a card!
Good fight, but no headliner. Surprised Bitchping isn't squealing for his Wandy rematch.
Oh yeah, he's fighting a "not top ten" MW fighter in Boetsch, almost forgot.
Yea that "not top ten" Botsch who just KO'd Okami...
To be fair, Botsch did not beat Okami with skill and was losing by a wide margin before he went all berserker.
This fight could actually be pretty good, I'll take it without bitching
But, but, but....
Oh, yea no real reason to bitch at it anyway.
I think Hunter was exuding optimism.
I am happy Vitor pulled out of the fight because he would reitire glass jawed Wandy with just one more brutal knockout loss so Franklin is easier fight for wandy
Franklin is the go to call up guy. And he did a great job against Chuck last time, plus his previous fight with Wand was fight of the night so Im not sure where all the hate is coming from. Ya it sucks that Vitor got hurt but at least Franklin wont try to hold him on the mat until the clock runs out like so many ufc fighters. Having said that I hope they get a striker and not a wrestler to fill in and fight against Cung Le.
I want to see this fight because it may be the last time we see wanderlei in the cage. just think this guy has over 50 professional fights to his name......he completely dominated over at Pride.
Wanderlei has everything to prove in this matchup, especially coming off his first loss to Rich. He will definetly be motivated for this bout ,bringing his standup war that saw cung lee get knocked out
Rich has lost twice to anderson silva, once to vitor, and once to Machida so the Brazilians have proven he is beatable.
For anyone who is not interested in this bout, take dana white's advice, then don't fuc*in buy it.
Not excited at all, should be a free card on fuel