Rich Franklin vs Vitor Belfort UFC 103 main event ...

I don’t know about the not holding a belt thing. I’ve seen lots of guys lose belts and get them back. Silva is the only man to dominate Rich that I’ve seen (never seen the Machida fight). I think Rich has good chances for holding a belt down the road. As long as his opponent isn’t Silva! Franklin could possibly be fighting Shogun or Rampage down the road for the belt. Not likely that Machida will lose the belt so soon but you never know in the UFC.

If Anderson loses to Franklin that will be a big setback for him. A lot of fans are already hating on him for his last two fights. He’ll be thrown under the bus if Hendo lands one of those big right hands. That said, as much as I love Dan, I think Silva will shine in this match and return to his former glory. It’s the quality of the opponent that brings out the best in him.

I agree though that Rich probably isn’t too upset. He’s going to get paid and he’s fighting a guy that is very well respected by the true fans. Funny though, none of us wanted to see him fight Hendo again, but I’m sure he wanted another crack at him.

Franklin is still one of the bigger stars in the sport, belt or no belt. I like this fight and expect a war. Tough one to call but I give a slight edge to Franklin.

machida tooled him way worse than silva could have dreamed of…

Vitor’s speed will be his undoing because we saw in the Wand fight that Rich doesn’t respond well to good power but wand was winging everything so much that he could catch him. Belfort’s got both so nighty night for Richy.
It’s a great fight but i say they should have matched him against Ortiz and just thrown Vitor into the deep end at 185, maybe a hendo rematch even though their first fight sucked @ss.

why is franklin getting shafted? he lost against the champ twice, then lost to henderson, and comes back with a really close fight with wanderlei, what do you want to give him another title shot for that? you should at least have to put together 3 good wins before jumping back in there

If Franklin beats Vitor, I wanna see Franklin vs. Shogun. That’s the number one Franklin fight I wanna see. Franklin is one of my favorite fighters but I expect Machida to have the belt for a while and Rich ain’t beating Machida — no one is (for a while at least) — unless Shogun can beat him.

Vitor is dangerous, he’s quick with a lot of power, I truly hope Franklin can beat him. I expect either a KO by Belfort or a decision by Franklin. It’s disappointing because I wanna see Franklin finishing dudes again. His power is deceptive, because he doesn’t seem as rough and tough as Henderson or Wanderlei and definitely doesn’t have as much power, yet he still can KO people. But his best chance of a KO is to rock his opponent and finish them for a TKO. Good enough for me.

the last time rich KOd anybody you could still make a phone call with a nickel

As I said, he’s more likely to get TKOs over KOs but that’s good enough for me.

LOL how much does a phone call there cost nowadays?

I hear ya, dog. But he’s still ranked (depending on the site) as a top ten LHW and fighting Belfort isn’t a regression by any means. If he loses, well it won’t affect his run at 205 and if he wins it’s proof he can continue to hang with top notch fighters and can be given a top ranked fighter once again.

It’s win-win for him at the moment. As well as for us. As long as he’s fighting top ten guys in any division and doing well — hopefully winning — I’m happy.

But if they were just giving him random fights with, for example, Stephan Bonnar or Mark Coleman, I would be very disappointed. You’re right, he’s not getting any younger, so it’s a good chance for him to rack up some top-notch match-ups and do well, and if he has a streak and gets close to the title, even better.

Personally KJ I think it’s lose lose. If he wins people will be “so what it’s at catchweight” (which is basically the reaction he got after beating wandy) and if he loses his stock will definitely fall at 205. How can it not if he’s lost in a weight class below? If he was moving up then I agree a loss wouldn’t hurt him.

That’s a fair point, A-dog. Definitely worthy of consideration.

But the reaction against his victory over Wandy was more to do with it being so close.

Belfort is a high-echelon fighter who can hang with the 205s if necessary, so losing to him, in my opinion, doesn’t show that Rich can’t handle the 205ers. If Belfort man-handled him like a ragdoll, then it would be questionable as it would be a possible sign that he’s not physically tough enough to take on higher ranked 205ers, but I doubt that will happen.

But the cut to 195 isn’t too dramatic for it to be too much of a sacrifice either. If he was bouncing back and forth from 185 to 205 there would be more reason to question it, but 195 isn’t that bad.

And you’re right, if he kept getting catchweight fights then we would have to stop and eventually say, “C’mon now, give Rich some lightheavies,” but this is only the second one so far and a better option than Hendo at 205.

I’m at the "C’mon now, give Rich some lightheavies," phase now! This is like 2 in 2 at CW, this is unprecedented in the UFC, no other fighter is treated like this on the whole roster.

I think we shall have to agree to disagree on this one KJ. I’ve enjoyed debating with a regular, sane poster though. Total contrast to last week when I was trying to debate here with the usual weekend warriors. It was like trying to argue the holocaust with Mel Gibson.

Hahaha.

Yeah. We can see each other’s point which is the main thing. As long as he performs well, he’ll get his run at 205. I’m sure of it — unless he changes his mind and goes for the title at 185 against Dan henderson next year ;)

That’s the only scenario that I wanna see those to in a rematch.