Rick 'Ace' Franklin
With former UFC champion Vitor Belfort out with a broken hand, the Ultimate Fighting Championship has turned to another former title holder to replace Belfort at next months UFC 147 event in Brazil.
Stepping in will be former middleweight champ Rich ‘Ace’ Franklin (28-6, 1NC) who now meets ‘The Axe Murderer’ Wanderlei Silva (34–11–1, 1NC) in a 190-lbs catchweight bout as part of the main event for the “TUF Brazil Finale.”
UFC 147 now has a new five-round main event, as former middleweight champion Rich Franklin will face “The Axe Murderer” Wanderlei Silva in a 190-pound catchweight feature. The two first met at UFC 99 in Germany, where Franklin earned a decision win and both men took home Fight of the Night bonuses.
UFC 147 is set to take place on June 23, 2012 at Estádio Jornalista Felipe Drumond in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Many of the cards bouts will feature matches between the featherweight and middleweight tournaments for “The Ultimate Fighter Brazil.”
The two fighters have faced each other once already, back in June 2009. Meeting in a 195-lbs catchweight bout at UFC 99, Franklin would go on to win a unanimous decision at the Cologne, Germany event. The two would also earn the “Fight of the Night” bonus for their work.
Franklin has been training in Singapore at the Evolve MMA gym recently and is certainly in shape enough to take the fight on less than a months notice. ‘Ace’ hasn’t fought for almost a year-and-a-half since a unanimous decision loss to Forrest Griffin at UFC 126. Franklin had shoulder surgery last summer and has recovered enough that he’s ready to re-enter the Octagon. He earned his last victory in June 2010 when he knocked out Chuck Liddell at UFC 115.
Silva voiced his displeasure with Belfort over Twitter recently, will now have to prepare himself for a new opponent. ‘The Axe Murderer’ is coming off a second round finish, and a “Fight of the Night” win, over Cung Le last November at UFC 139. The win allowed the former PRIDE star to bounce back from a 27-second knockout loss to Chris Leben last July at UFC 132. Silva is 2-1 in his last three matches, but is 2-3 in his last five.