Is Rich Franklin a TOP 3 UFC MW of all time?

I could see the argument. Especially since I thought he kind of got robbed against Hendo and Forrest. A lot of people are saying things like "Luke and Wiedman would beat", and well maybe they would. But they weren't fighting at that level when he was and that's all we can really compare it too. I would say that his resume is stronger than theirs, but it is a really hard question to answer.
He need to rewatch the Forrest fight ... the fight wasn’t remotely close .... those fights didn’t happen at 185 , so are irrelevant to Rich’s mw ranking
 
I could see the argument. Especially since I thought he kind of got robbed against Hendo and Forrest. A lot of people are saying things like "Luke and Wiedman would beat", and well maybe they would. But they weren't fighting at that level when he was and that's all we can really compare it too. I would say that his resume is stronger than theirs, but it is a really hard question to answer.

Franklin was also losing to the top tier fighters of his era when he fough them - Machida and Silva - and in convincing fashion. Belfort KOed him then but is also from his era. Or Henderson. Im not sure he would be favoured to beat Bustamante a UFC champion who left for more money. He didnt even had the chance to fght Lindland, who could have given him problems.

So Franklin didnt fight the top guys his size of his era and when he did, he lost.

Weidman and Rockold DID beat the best fighters in their era

So it's not just that Weidman and Rockhold would beat Franklin, they are also above Franklin relative to their respective time
 
Man you are wrong all over the place, to the point you dont even make sense

- You list Hughes legit wins and you dont even mention Sakurai :eek:

- Sakurai, Newton, BJ, Sherk were unanimously top ranked in the division at the time. Tanner, Okami, Loiseau, Quarry were not. Only Tanner and even him was less established than the aforementioned opponents for Hughes

- Wand and Liddell fights werent at MW. Anyways both were past their primes, unlike Hughes best opponents.

UFC was fine with Rick Franklin as an American posterboy, and invested more money for contenders in other divisions. Even Lindland and Bustamante - who would be slight underdogs at best vs Franklin back then - left for more money lol

Lmao Sakurai is an all-time great win, please.

Sherk and BJ were both LWs. It would be like Usman getting a win over McGregor at WW or even Khabib, can you really give him that much credit for that? No.
 
Stop comparing Hughes/Franklin with next generations...it's only you who are doing so

Hughes beat top ranked competition in his era. Franklin not that much. Again,in their respective era.

Rockhold or Weidman are better than Franklin not just because they would beat him, but because they were actually the consensus best MW in the world at some point by beating top5 MWs of their respective era, unlike Franklin in his era to such extent.

Do you have a hard on for Luke Rockhold? Because there's absolutely no legitimate reason legacy/resume' wise to put him over Franklin or consider him to be an all-time great MW.

That's a completely joke. He dodged Jacare forever, he has ZERO UFC title defenses, lost to Michael Bisping, went on a huge losing skid still young in his "prime" and only defended the Strikeforce belt against who, Keith Jardine and Tim Kennedy?

Franklin's resume' is clearly better. If we're talking who would win a fight prime vs prime in a vacuum, then I'd say Rockhold sure, but that's now how you're judging HUghes and you simply won't admit it.
 
Lmao Sakurai is an all-time great win, please.

Sherk and BJ were both LWs. It would be like Usman getting a win over McGregor at WW or even Khabib, can you really give him that much credit for that? No.

wtf are you talking about. you are either trolling or a serious weirdo
Sakurai is one of Hughes best wins. Sakurai was ranked top5 WW. He is about same size than Sherk or BJ
 
Rockhold beat Bisping , Jacare and Weidman ....all 3 better than anyone Franklin has beat at mw imo .....

Hughes is better than you think imo

I’ll list his top 10 wins , I realize some weren’t in their prime / best weight etc

1GSp ( 23 but still a beast )
2 Penn( agreed bj beat himself a bit , but Hughes survival was impressive)
3. Sakurai
4. Newton
5 . Trigg
6 . Lytle
7 . Almeida
8 . Royce
9 . Sherk
10. Serra

Franklins top 10 mw wins

1 okami
2 . Tanner
3 . Lutter
4 . Crow
5. Edwin

im struggling with 10 for FrankLin .... these two aren’t comparable at all imo ..... Franklin barely a top 10 mw imo

Bro you got fucking Trigg and Lytle there at 5-6 for Hughes as well as Sakurai (lmfao) at 3. Number 2 is also a fucking 155er in Penn.

And you've decided to leave out Nate Quarry, basically a "prime" Matt Hammil decent at least, Wanderlai twice even if he was regressed, first time he couldn't have been that much.

You literlaly listed Royce Gracie for Hughes lmfao, holy fuck that's bad. Clearly you're extremely biased and I have no interest in discussing this further with either of you. I don't even like Franklin that much, have a shred of fucking objectivity.
 
Do you have a hard on for Luke Rockhold? Because there's absolutely no legitimate reason legacy/resume' wise to put him over Franklin or consider him to be an all-time great MW.

That's a completely joke. He dodged Jacare forever, he has ZERO UFC title defenses, lost to Michael Bisping, went on a huge losing skid still young in his "prime" and only defended the Strikeforce belt against who, Keith Jardine and Tim Kennedy?

Franklin's resume' is clearly better. If we're talking who would win a fight prime vs prime in a vacuum, then I'd say Rockhold sure, but that's now how you're judging HUghes and you simply won't admit it.

Ok definitely you are clueless.
Rockold actually styled on Jacare. His Strikeforce championship run is about as legit as Franklin's UFC championship run, but you have a hard on UFC brand are overall you just dont make any sense in your posts lol

Jacare, Kennedy, Jardine are about as good if not better than Tanner, Loiseau, Quarry.

In top of it, his UFC championship run capped off with a KO over Weidman is one of the best runs in UFC MW history, in a whole other level than Tanner, Loiseau and Quarry

Rockhold has 3 top5 and 4 top10 ranked opponents at MW, at the time Rockhold beat them.
Franklin has only a couple of wins over top10 ranked MWs, at the time Franklin beat them

So get a grip
 
wtf are you talking about. you are either trolling or a serious weirdo
Sakurai is one of Hughes best wins. Sakurai was ranked top5 WW. He is about same size than Sherk or BJ

Yeah sorry I don't jerk off to Japanese cans.
 
Ok definitely you are clueless.
Rockold actually styled on Jacare. His Strikeforce championship run is about as legit as Franklin's UFC championship run, but you have a hard on UFC brand are overall you just dont make any sense in your posts lol

Jacare, Kennedy, Jardine are about as good if not better than Tanner, Loiseau, Quarry.

In top of it, his UFC championship run capped off with a KO over Weidman is one of the best runs in UFC MW history, in a whole other level than Tanner, Loiseau and Quarry

Rockhold has 3 top5 and 4 top10 ranked opponents at MW, at the time Rockhold beat them.
Franklin has only a couple of wins over top10 ranked MWs, at the time Franklin beat them

So get a grip

Yes let me get a grip because I don't agree with your literally autistic 1% contrarian opinion that the UFC doesn't generally house the best fighters and talent. Right, let me go look at SHOOTO the pinnacle of MMA to see Sakurai absolutely dominate a bunch of shitter bums. Top 5 GOAT ever clearly.

And yes I never denied the instances of Pride or Strikeforce specifically having great talent. I said Henderson would make my list over Franklin. But when you want me to regard fucking Sakurai as a better win than GSP then you can just go jerk off to your obscure pro japanese wrestling posters because clearly you're autistic.
 
Yeah sorry I don't jerk off to Japanese cans.

What do you jerk off to, uber weirdo?

Sakurai KOed Pulver and Menne who arent Japanese and have actually been UFC champions.
Also destroyed Trigg, who was a top WW-MW from USA and you actually include him among best Hughes wins lol retard
Beat Hanssen, not Japanese neither, who was a top ranked LW
Beat Nakao, who finisished UFC champion from Iowa Pat Miletich
Beat Aoki twice, who beat plenty of American fighters

You are in an online mma forum with almost 2000 posts in 6 months calling Hayato Sakurai "a Japanese can" wtf are you jerking off to monumental online rat weirdo? LMAO
 
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Franklin was also losing to the top tier fighters of his era when he fough them - Machida and Silva - and in convincing fashion. Belfort KOed him then but is also from his era. Or Henderson. Im not sure he would be favoured to beat Bustamante a UFC champion who left for more money. He didnt even had the chance to fght Lindland, who could have given him problems.

So Franklin didnt fight the top guys his size of his era and when he did, he lost.

Weidman and Rockold DID beat the best fighters in their era

So it's not just that Weidman and Rockhold would beat Franklin, they are also above Franklin relative to their respective time
Machida was a lhw. Yes he lost to Anderson but Anderson occupies the number one spot. Franklin has some big wins and he never went on a nasty skid like both Wiedman and Luke did. You’re listing fights that Franklin lost but it’s going to look a lot uglier if we start listing fights Chris lost
 
What do you jerk off to, uber weirdo?

Sakurai KOed Pulver and Menne who arent Japanese and have actually been UFC champions.
Also destroyed Trigg, who was a top WW-MW from USA.
Beat Hanssen, not Japanese neither, who was a top ranked LW
Beat Nakao, who finisished UFC champion from Iowa Pat Miletich
Beat Aoki twice, who beat plenty of American fighters

You are in an online mma forum with almost 2000 posts in 6 months calling Hayato Sakurai "a Japanese can" wtf are you jerking off to monumental online rat weirdo? LMAO

Where do you have Sakurai, top 10 all-time?
 
Machida was a lhw. Yes he lost to Anderson but Anderson occupies the number one spot. Franklin has some big wins and he never went on a nasty skid like both Wiedman and Luke did. You’re listing fights that Franklin lost but it’s going to look a lot uglier if we start listing fights Chris lost

Yes it's kind of silly guys like Nate Quarry are being made out to be complete shitbag cans, while Frank Trigg is some fucking legend and people are even listing Chris Lytle and Royce Gracie at age 60.

In reality Quarry was pretty good, injuries derailed his career though. Also that Machida fight was apparently a 214lb catchweight so even further past LHW.
 
Machida was a lhw.

Be realistic man c'mon. Mahida and Franklin are about same size; Machida has actuallly made a run to the tittle shot at MW in UFC. You offer Machida back then a good money to drop to 185 and fight Franklin for the belt and he does. He fought at LHW as he was getting better money avoiding to cut. Rich Franklin used to walk around at 215.

Their fight wasnt even competitive. Franklin didnt lose because of a size missmatch at all

Yes he lost to Anderson but Anderson occupies the number one spot. Franklin has some big wins and he never went on a nasty skid like both Wiedman and Luke did. You’re listing fights that Franklin lost but it’s going to look a lot uglier if we start listing fights Chris lost

Who are best Franklin's wins at MW? Thats the first thing you look at when comparing figters: quality performances on quality opponents

Rockhold has beat established top ranked MWs in Jacare, Machida, Bisping and Weidman, most by finish. Franklin's best wins at MW are Tanner and Okami in a extremely close dec who wasnt still ranked in his year debut in UFC.

Quarry, Loiseau or Lutter maybe broke the top10 ranks for a brief at some point just like Phillipou, Boetsch, Jardine or Branch did, who all got smoked by Rockhold.

Im not comparing eras, Im talking about rankings relative to their respective eras

It's ridiculous pretending Franklin was ever a more proven top MW than Weidman and Rockhold. Rich was a very good fighter and such a likeable guy but some of you in this site have bought way too much the American posterboy the UFC sold you at the time
 
Where do you have Sakurai, top 10 all-time?

No.
What kind of reply is that hahah why do you even care if you dont have the slighest clue.

Like you think Triggs is a notable opponent while calling Sakurai "a Japanese can"....:eek::eek::eek::eek:<Moves>
 
Bro you got fucking Trigg and Lytle there at 5-6 for Hughes as well as Sakurai (lmfao) at 3. Number 2 is also a fucking 155er in Penn.

And you've decided to leave out Nate Quarry, basically a "prime" Matt Hammil decent at least, Wanderlai twice even if he was regressed, first time he couldn't have been that much.

You literlaly listed Royce Gracie for Hughes lmfao, holy fuck that's bad. Clearly you're extremely biased and I have no interest in discussing this further with either of you. I don't even like Franklin that much, have a shred of fucking objectivity.
What does Rich’s 205 fights have to do with his mw ranking ? Chris Lytle is a very good fighter ... have you seen him fight ? You think you know way more then you do .... fight finder is your bestie
 
Be realistic man c'mon. Mahida and Franklin are about same size; Machida has actuallly made a run to the tittle shot at MW in UFC. You offer Machida back then a good money to drop to 185 and fight Franklin for the belt and he does. He fought at LHW as he was getting better money avoiding to cut. Rich Franklin used to walk around at 215.

Their fight wasnt even competitive. Franklin didnt lose because of a size missmatch at all



Who are best Franklin's wins at MW? Thats the first thing you look at when comparing figters: quality performances on quality opponents

Rockhold has beat established top ranked MWs in Jacare, Machida, Bisping and Weidman, most by finish. Franklin's best wins at MW are Tanner and Okami in a extremely close dec who wasnt still ranked in his year debut in UFC.

Quarry, Loiseau or Lutter maybe broke the top10 ranks for a brief at some point just like Phillipou, Boetsch, Jardine or Branch did, who all got smoked by Rockhold.

Im not comparing eras, Im talking about rankings relative to their respective eras

It's ridiculous pretending Franklin was ever a more proven top MW than Weidman and Rockhold. Rich was a very good fighter and such a likeable guy but some of you in this site have bought way too much the American posterboy the UFC sold you at the time

I am being realistic. That fight happened before Machida made a permanent move to MW. Changing weight classes can have a real effect. Just ask Rockhold, who doesn’t lose to guys like Jan :p

All those fighters you listed were top ten at the time believe it or not, as was Jmac when they fought. I’m not saying he is for sure better than Chris or Luke, but I can see the argument. I’m not even sure who I would put in the number 3 spot.
 
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