When former light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell was forced off the UFC 85 card with a hamstring injury, the organization scrambled to find a main event-worthy bout to take the place of his scheduled showdown with Rashad Evans at the O2 Arena in London, England.
Several possible fights were discussed, including a middleweight tilt between former UFC middleweight champion, Rich Franklin, and former Pride FC dual division belt holder, Dan Henderson.
In fact, according to a Yahoo!Sports.com report, "Ace" had to turn down the opportunity because he "felt after such a hard training camp that he wouldn’t be able to peak again so soon." Franklin just dispatched of Travis Lutter via second round technical knockout at UFC 83: "Serra vs. St. Pierre 2" on April 19.
The interesting thing here is that even though the fight won't take place on June 7, it is expected to go down later on this year.
That's a fantastic match up -- Franklin is proving that he is perhaps the second best 185-pound fighter in the world, defeating all comers since 2003 with the exception of Anderson Silva (lost twice).
On the other hand, Hendo needs to re-establish himself as one of the top pound-for-pound fighters on the planet. He's lost two straight albeit to talented champions Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and Silva.
And it wouldn't get any easier with Franklin, but it would create some fireworks in a division that sorely needs them. It's a nice clash of styles between two of the best in the sport.
This is going to be a hard one to predict if and when it goes off. Can't wait.
Sidenote: Matt Hughes stepped up to take on Thiago Alves in the UFC 85 main event, as well as Michael Bisping and Chris Leben ... not to mention James Irvin (he'll take on Evans).
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