How good was Rich Franklin?

Was a cardio stud too
 
He had good speed, decent power, good wrestling, good BJJ and decent boxing. His early wins were all at LHW(or possibly MW 199lbs, im too lazy to look it up) and realistically he could have been UFC LHW champion instead of MW had he not fought in Japan when his contract was up and lost to Machida. Given the chance against the likes of Tito and Liddell I really think he could have been LHW champion but the UFC forced him to their new 185lb division after black balling him.
What he lacked that the very best in the sport all possess is being awesome, not just good in at least one area.
 
While not a HoF candidate, I think hes the benchmark for HoF. If you want to consider someone for it, they have to be better than Rich.



I have said this before in a different thread here. Rich was very good, just not elite.
HOF should be reserved for only the elite fighters and Rich just misses the cut.
As far as outside the ring, he is a very well spoken man and genuinely seems like a nice guy.
 
Before his first loss to Silva Franklin looked unstoppable. I remember him being the first champ who I thought was unbeatable at the time.
 
He was a great fighter that happened to run into an all-time great.
 
he was aight.
Pretty overstated tbh. This "He would dominate MW if it weren't for Anderson" malarky is pretty strange

Maybe it is malarky... But how many fighters that challenged Anderson for the title would you favor to beat Rich?

With the exception of Vitor and Chael, I would think Franklin beats them all. I even thought that Franklin deserved the nod over Henderson.
 
Maybe it is malarky... But how many fighters that challenged Anderson for the title would you favor to beat Rich?

With the exception of Vitor and Chael, I would think Franklin beats them all. I even thought that Franklin deserved the nod over Henderson.

Well he didn't beat Hendo did he? plus of course theres Weidman as well.

The issue I'd say though is that even Anderson didn't really dominate MW, he never fought the likes of Jacare, Mousasi, Filho(pre drugs), Lindland, Kang(pre personal issues) etc.

Then there were a lot of guys Riches size at LHW like Machida, Shogun, Rashad etc.
 
being defeated by Silva and Machida is nothing to be ashamed of TS, dont be a hater, Rich was legit
 
He had a lot of quality wins. 29-7 with 2 MW title defenses is damn good, wins against Wandy, Chuck, and...some other dudes.
 
I didn't want to take anything away from Rich's win

It was a good win as Ken was still a tough fight for anyone.. but it was obvious in 2002 Ken was way past his prime.

Rich is a good guy, he always showed respect, he said he was the most nervous he's ever been for a fight against Ken, in an interview with Mike on Voice Versus.
 
While not a HoF candidate, I think hes the benchmark for HoF. If you want to consider someone for it, they have to be better than Rich.

If Stephen fucking Bonnar is in the HOF than guys like Frankin deserve to be in too
 
He was a good fighter who probably could have been great if his initial focus had been MMA from the start. Old era fighter with a career that turned to MMA. Had he came out of college and focused on the sport from the get go he probably would he regarded higher, but in the end he was/is a solid fighter and a great face for the sport.
 
Very good fighter who fought in a very weak division. He's pretty underrated to be honest. Even after losing the title he still got some very good wins such as Okami, Wand, Hamill and Chuck. He's top 5 MW all time.

I agree. At the time he was MW champ the holy trinity of LHW was Rampage, Wand and Chuck. Franklin beat 2 of those 3 (yes they were older and washed up but so was Franklin so it's fair). He also had a very close fight with Hendo that if I remember right I had him winning. He is kind of the Big Nog of MW, would have been the best if 1 guy wasn't around.
 
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