UFC News: Rich Franklin on his move to 205

Posted on September 4th, 2008

rich franklin

Rich Franklin moves into dangerous waters

In a recent interview Rich Franklin talked about his move to the 205 weight class. For a guy that was dominant champion then dominated twice by the current champion he is in a tricky spot (UFC 64 Results and UFC 77 Results). Franklin said “So really, I’m stuck in a position of fighting guys who just lost their title shot to Anderson, and it leaves me in a position in the weight class where I don’t have a whole lot to look forward to other than my next fight.” With people that are this competitive it only makes sense that Franklin would want to get out of a weight class that haw a ceiling that doesn’t involve him as the title holder.

Rich Franklin wants to fight the best

The 205 weight class is arguably the most stacked division currently (Dan Henderson, Rampage Jackson, Rashad Evans, Chuck Liddell, Forrest Griffin, etc.), and it seems like moving up would be more difficult. Franklin knows this, he says that he “basically just threw [him]self in a pool of sharks,” but he doesn’t sound scared seeing how he ended that statement by saying “How exciting is that?”. This comment and the move to 205 is classic Rich Franklin. He is one of the toughest fighters in the UFC and he is going to make a very large splash in the 205 arena. People could argue that he won’t be able to compete with the upper tiers of the light heavy weight fighters after what Anderson Silva did to him, but Anderson Silva is a freak of nature and could probably do that to any of those top fighters in light heavy weight. This is a solid move for Franklin and I think we are going to see a new fighter with a reignited fire to win, watch out Forrest.

What do you think about Rich Franklin’s move to 205?