Rich Ace Franklin

[BowserJr]

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

 

[Ibm]

Yes hes defitely underrated,

 

[Gang Sign Luke]

He was such a beast. He was good everywhere and hit hard af. He really whooped a lot of guys' asses. Top 5 middleweight champ.

 

[BabyBlue_Bomber]

His toughness was second to none. Beat both Louiseau and Liddell with broken bones, and survived some pretty close submission attempts against Okami and Lutter, and a very clean punch against Tanner…

Aside from Le, the only people to beat him were all future or former UFC champions…

But he beat Ken Shamrock, so it was always hard for me to like him…

 

[BEATDOWNS]

never liked the pink and brown combo tbh

 

[BowserJr]

never liked the pink and brown combo tbh

Ha! Not a fan of those colors either but it's classic Franklin

 

[Hymen Crusher]

Fucking 2 easy. Legend, similar to ddp weird style seems insanely strong and lefty. Sick body kick.

 

[Shaolin Alan]

Anderson Silva United the UFC & Pride FC middleweight belts

 

[SamuraiBro]

Ha! Not a fan of those colors either but it's classic Franklin

Ah yes the classic Neapolitan ice cream shorts. Memorable

 

[baba2008]

That nate Quarry KO was legendary.

 

[BEATDOWNS]

Ha! Not a fan of those colors either but it's classic Franklin

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

 

[Sms_productions713]

Aside from the quarry and liddell ko, he never seemed like a knockout artist. He just seemed like a tough guy with a never ending gas tank.

 

[TheMadHatter]

Massively underrated. The Liddell KO was crazy, outside of Silva he could hang with the best of them

 

[BEATDOWNS]

Anderson Silva United the UFC & Pride FC middleweight belts

against Hendo crazy to think that Hendo put his Pride MW and LHW titles on the line (Unofficially) back to back and lost both. Anderson smoked him but his fight with Rampage was fucking a War!!

 

[Bob Gray]

That last string of opponents was like Dana thought Franklin fucked his wife or something.

Mididleweight champ fighting:

Dan Hnderson
Wanderlei Silva
Vitor Belfort
Chuck Liddell
Griffin
Wanderlei again
Cung Le

Franklin wasnt gonna back down from anybody.

 

[elreece]

solid top 5 and one of my personal fav fighters of all time.

 

[Doctor Grudge]

That last string of opponents was like Dana thought Franklin fucked his wife or something.

Mididleweight champ fighting:

Dan Hnderson
Wanderlei Silva
Vitor Belfort
Chuck Liddell
Griffin
Wanderlei again
Cung Le

Franklin wasnt gonna back down from anybody.

lol


Though it's more like thats the amount of respect Rich had. He didnt have the flashiest personality but its clear that all the headliners looked at him as a credible opponent.


A lot of times people try to discredit Rich Franklin because he was a Math teacher, which is one of the strangest criticisms I've seen of a fighter.

 

[Mike]

He lost to hendo 29/28 pretty clearly

 

[Hotora86]

Underrated and smart, likeable guy who could have been a math teacher all his life but chose violence and gave us some amazing fights. War Ace!

 

[RichardHarrow]

solid top 5 and one of my personal fav fighters of all time.

Top 5 MW ? Are you mad?