Rich Ace Franklin

[mkt]

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.

That was probably the best version of Silva, too. He'd made improvements since his Pride days but was still relatively young (early 30s). He had great striking and head movement but didn't do excessive clowning like he did later (Maia, Leites, Cote, Weidman #1 fights). He was a straight-up killer who didn't mess around in the Leben, Franklin, Marquadt and Hendo fights. Of course he did some incredible matrix work later (Forrest Griffin, Belfort, etc.) but also had some ho-hum fights where he lacked a killer instinct.

 

[r-harper-1]

Silva
Hendo
Izzy
Romero
Rockhold
Jacare
Weidman
Franklin?
Whittaker

Outside the top 3 the next 5 could really be in any order

Can’t See Hendo ranked that high ….A large number of his significant wins happened at higher weight

 

[TheBulge]

With no Silva in the way I can see Franklin defending his title all the way to 2010 untill prime Sonnen runs into him.

 

[BJJ4Tone]

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

I've often wondered how long he would have stayed champion, if not for Anderson coming to the UFC...
Maybe when Sonnen hit his hot streak and was on TRT, maybe he could have beaten him.
Otherwise, maybe TRTitor.
Rockhold and teh Chris.

 

[Bowel-forged Stool]

I’ve called this “The Passion of Nate “the rock” Quarry” since it happened

 

[Bowel-forged Stool]

 

[mkt]

With no Silva in the way I can see Franklin defending his title all the way to 2010 untill prime Sonnen runs into him.

Yeah, I think Marquadt might be close to 50/50 against him but I don't see anyone else until Sonnen...Of course TRT versions of Belfort and Hendo he later fought would be tough, too.

 

[Local Plata]

One of the first guys to highlight how well a good Strength and Conditioning could be done.

He get underrated because his skills and actual athletic ability weren't great, and he always looked a bit awkward + had like 20 pounds on most of the guys he fought. I think he's a textbook definition of Hall of Very Good type of guys in other sports.

 

[afflicted]

MY FAVORITE MW EVER.
Always loved Anderson, but Rich was always my favorite, and cant really consider Wanderlei a MW in my book, because his golden years were at PRIDE, fighting at 205.

 

[mudoxiii]

He did incredible for a guy who didn't learn martial arts until he was an adult. He never wrestled in high school and learned striking and grappling from instructional tapes and small-town gyms while getting his Master's degree in Education and becoming a school teacher to boot. He also never joined a big time MMA Gym from those days although he did have some mat time with Miletich's gym but only after he was an established contendor/champion but he always stuck with his core guys.

Rich got to where he is by pure determination and grit. He wasn't a gifted athlete by any measure but he worked his ass off to achieve a goal. I'd say he's done pretty awesome post fighting career too as I'm assuming being the VP of one of the largest fighting organizations in the world and hosting a TV series for them in it's 5th season probably pays the bills quite well

 

[The XL]

Rich was right there against anyone not named Anderson

 

[Tito Tapped]

Honestly couldn't disagree more. Good career but vastly overrated ad champion.

 

[jeff7b9]

That nate Quarry KO was legendary.

There is a clip I saw of Nate Quarry talking about how he got paid something like 50k for that fight and then became the star of the next 5-10 years of UFC highlight reel intros as a rigid falling corpse


Gotta suck to have the most embarrassing moment of your professional career commemorated over and over again for the world to see.

 

[Megatronlee]

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

He’d have held on a while I think.

 

[Hog-train]

I remember back in the day all the casual UFC fans had no idea who Anderson Silva was before their anticipated matchup.

But I had been watching Pride and KOTC so knew Silva would piece him up.

 

[TR1]

He is rated just fine. He had what, 2 good wins before Anderson showed him that MT clinches exist?

 

[Hank Grill]

The math teacher just ran into Anderson JBG bless Rich good guy and a great fighter in the 00's and hope he's getting all the money he can from the shit show that is ONE FC.

 

[BowserJr]

He is rated just fine. He had what, 2 good wins before Anderson showed him that MT clinches exist?

Filthy casual statement

 

[BJ@LW&WW]

i miss the days of rich franklin. seemed like a pretty well rounded individual as well.

fightmatrix's algorithm has him at #8 all time.

All-Time Middleweight - Fight Matrix

1	Anderson Silva	34-11-0	20974
2	Israel Adesanya	24-5-0	11997
3	Chris Weidman	16-8-0	9147
4	Gegard Mousasi	49-9-2	5378
5	Robert Whittaker	26-8-0	5361
6	Luke Rockhold	16-6-0	4650
7	Michael Bisping	30-9-0	4574
8	Rich Franklin	29-7-0	4458
9	Dricus Du Plessis	23-2-0	4194
10	Dan Henderson	32-15-0	4154
11	Ronaldo Souza	26-10-0	3866
12	Murilo Bustamante	15-8-1	3721
13	Nate Marquardt	36-20-2	3551
14	Chael Sonnen	31-17-1	3381
15	Yoel Romero	16-7-0	3215
16	Yuki Kondo	67-40-9	2732
17	Sean Strickland	29-7-0	2360

 

[Otto!]

A class act and a game fighter. A true ambassador of the sport.

His ko of Nate Quarry looked painful af, and his armbar escape from Travis Lutter was impressive too.