Rich Ace Franklin

he also had one of the greatest 1 punch koes of all time

giphy.gif
 
Yea you’ll get some pushback on this. I gave up trying to stan for Ace. It boils down to something like “weak era blah blah blah”.

He was top dog right around the TUF era, so I may be romanticizing his reign a bit. He was the total package. Great amabassador for the sport. A handsome school teacher. My girl at the time thought he was hot. Remember the Xyience commercials? Some hot chick calling him “Mr. franklin” lol. The trademarked pink and brown.

I was stunned when Silva dismantled him. People forget that Rich worked his way to a TS rematch. Sure, he got destroyed again, but it must have taken serious balls to rematch Anderson after getting his face changed like that.

He has to be there up there, though. Izzy and Andy are #1 and #2, but there’s a discussion to be had after that. I think it comes down to Ace and Hendo for #3.
 
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Rampage was the first to unite the pride and UFC belts when he beat Hendo.

That was hendo's first fight in the UFC after the UFC bought it iirc. The Silva fight came after.
 
I always liked Rich, from the time I saw him destroy Ken Shamrock. He was an excellent champion, However, the fight I always remember most of his, is when A Silva rearranged his nose with those vicious knees!
 
Shaolin Alan said:
Anderson Silva United the UFC & Pride FC middleweight belts
Click to expand...

Hendo united the Lineal MW belt when he fought Bustamante the 2nd time.

Bustamante left UFC with that belt to pride

Hendo was also Bustamantes 1st fight after leaving UFC with the belt. It was at LHW but Bustamante lost that 1 too
 
Pretty sure everybody loved Ace. I don't remember any friends or other watchers rooting against him. He was a bar favourite for sure.

Just a very likeable, well spoken ordinary guy who wasn't afraid to bang. Prime Ace could hang with most of the current top dogs, blee dat.
 
Rich Franklin is an overlooked icon of this sport.

A true pivotal character in the entire sport and its ascension towards mainstream status.

At a time where the sport was considered a freakshow filled with thugs, there was that educated, well-articulated, very well-rounded, soft-spoken, good-looking, super classy and talented guy breaking all those clichés and proving all haters of MMA wrong and cleaning up the entire image of the sport.
 
BEATDOWNS said:
lol
you said you wanted Franklin vs Bisping so crazy to think that the winner of Hendo vs Franklin was to coach opposite Bisping on TUF 9! Imagine if Rich had got the nod and Bisping didn't get H-Bombed into Bolivian. lol lots of peeps thought Rich won that..would have been a whole different season of TUF too bizzaro world. lol
Click to expand...
Dam i didn't even remember that... it happened in another timeline for sure
 
Bend NvR Break said:
??
Rampage was the first to unite the pride and UFC belts when he beat Hendo.

That was hendo's first fight in the UFC after the UFC bought it iirc. The Silva fight came after.
Click to expand...

Hendo united the UFC MW belt when he fought Bustamante at the 183lb Pride tournament final.
 
BEATDOWNS said:
lol
you said you wanted Franklin vs Bisping so crazy to think that the winner of Hendo vs Franklin was to coach opposite Bisping on TUF 9! Imagine if Rich had got the nod and Bisping didn't get H-Bombed into Bolivian. lol lots of peeps thought Rich won that..would have been a whole different season of TUF too bizzaro world. lol
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You're telling me that if Rich hadn't lost via questionable decision, one of the most unlikable fighters ever wouldn't have gotten a career defining win over Bisping?
You know, I thought Steve Irwin dying was when we went down the bad timeline, but it might be Rich losing to Hendo.
 
BowserJr said:
Hendo united the UFC MW belt when he fought Bustamante at the 183lb Pride tournament final.
Click to expand...
Gotcha because he was the lineal UFC MW (185) when he fought Hendo in the championship fight of the pride WW (185) tournament. But still he wasn't the actual champ. Evan tanner won the vacant title against David Terrell.

When Hendo fought Rampage they acknowledged that Hendo was the pride MW champ (and WW champ) and marketed and promoted the fight as a unification fight between the pride 205 champ and the UFC 205 champ.
 
He definitely beat Hendo, but Hollywood had a way of winning fights he shouldn't have. Still a P4P ATG even if his wins were properly allocated at losses.
 
Post-MMA he had another ace up his sleeve(did somebody make this joke already? I dont have time to read the thread).
 
I think the Silva fights destroyed his reputation quite a bit. Suddenly people started talking about him being a teacher in a very negative way lol

He was very good, just not sublimely skilled like The Spider. No shame in that though.
 
BowserJr said:
He is quite possibly the most underrated champion of all time. Likely cuz of the way Silva destroyed him. The guy was an absolute stud though. Even after the Silva losses he still had great wins, defeating Okami, Wanderlei 2x, Lidell and many thought he beat Hendo who was the first to unite the Pride and UFC MW belt and is/was widely regarded as the undisputed #2 MW of all time.

Wand and Chuck were subprime for sure but it's not like they no longer had power in their hands. While Rich was at the top everyone thought he had a weak chin yet he did not get KOed by any of those KO machines I mentioned.

I wish we saw him fight Bisping and Marquardt. I think he sou dly beats Bisping and Marquardt is a toss up.

Where do you have Ace In Your all time MW rankings or champion rankings?

PS
I think he would've beaten Sonnen and maybe Weidman too... he was too old when Luke came in
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I don't think early UFC Wand was that bad. Wand beat Bisping in the same era that Rich beat Wand (twice).
At his best, Rich was a better version of Bisping. He arguably beat the same Hendo who flatlined Bisping in seconds. If Silva didn't come to the UFC, I'm almost sure we'd have seen Rich-Marquadt which would've been a banger.

I think he'd have trouble with prime versions of Sonnen and Weidman, though. Hendo beat Rich via LnP wrestling after struggling with Rich in striking. Sonnen and Weidman were both better MMA wrestlers than Hendo. Even Forrest Griffin outwrestled Rich. Granted, Forrest was a really big LHW and good at BJJ--but he wasn't a great wrestler at all.
 
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