Classic Fight: Rich Franklin Retires Chuck Liddell With a Broken Arm at UFC 115


(“If this isn’t a world where Mitt Romney is president, you can just put me back to sleep thank you very much.”) 

As we mentioned in our head to head assessment of this weekend’s UFC Macao main event matchup, Rich Franklin is one tough SOB. So tough, in fact, that he not only managed to fight through a broken arm in his UFC 115 match against Hall of Famer Chuck Liddell, but even made sure to finish Liddell before the bell rung, for the fight could have likely been called in Liddell’s favor had both men made it to their corners.

So with the main card action kicking off at a completely reasonable 9 a.m. EST this Saturday, the UFC has released a couple of Franklin’s (as well as Le’s) fights online to give us all a little refresher course on what our two headliners have been up to. It’s a noble effort, but there’s simply no way in hell I will have recovered from my night of binge drinking, bum fighting, and huffing paint thinner through an old grease rag in time to catch any of the main card matchups live. They’re called priorities.

Anyway, head after the jump to take a stroll down memory lane, even though you probably remember the intricacies of this fight better than ol’ Chucky boy does.


(“If this isn’t a world where Mitt Romney is president, you can just put me back to sleep thank you very much.”) 

As we mentioned in our head to head assessment of this weekend’s UFC Macao main event matchup, Rich Franklin is one tough SOB. So tough, in fact, that he not only managed to fight through a broken arm in his UFC 115 match against Hall of Famer Chuck Liddell, but even made sure to finish Liddell before the bell rung, for the fight could have likely been called in Liddell’s favor had both men made it to their corners.

So with the main card action kicking off at a completely reasonable 9 a.m. EST this Saturday, the UFC has released a couple of Franklin’s (as well as Le’s) fights online to give us all a little refresher course on what our two headliners have been up to. It’s a noble effort, but there’s simply no way in hell I will have recovered from my night of binge drinking, bum fighting, and huffing paint thinner through an old grease rag in time to catch any of the main card matchups live. They’re called priorities.

Anyway, head after the jump to take a stroll down memory lane, even though you probably remember the intricacies of this fight better than ol’ Chucky boy does.

The fight starts at the 10:20 mark, with a paunch-less Liddell throwing the arm-breaking kick shortly thereafter (11:26). At first, Franklin addresses the injury with less concern than most of us would address a hangnail with, but his moment of clarity comes the 12:14 mark, where he cleverly disguises an attempt to assess the damage with classic “checking my invisible watch” technique.

As for Liddell, he was truly in the zone that night, delivering a more diverse array of strikes and takedowns than we had seen in years, which makes it all the more disappointing when he gets overzealous with approximately 10 seconds left to go in the round and is promptly knocked the fuck out. The power of pink shorts, ladies and gentlemen. It’s a brutiful thing.

On the heels of his second unanimous decision victory over Wanderlei Silva at UFC 147, Franklin will be looking to string together his first two fight win streak since 2008 with a win over Cung Le. Do you think he can pull it off?

–J. Jones