2012 senior class photos
2012 West Carrollton graduation
Home of the Week
Home > Blogs > Mixed Martial Arts > Archives > 2009 > September > 18
Friday, September 18, 2009
Franklin’s UFC 103 opponent struggles to make weight
An immensely hard-to-predict UFC 103 main event fight between Rich Franklin and Vitor Belfort may have swayed into the local fighter’s favor.
Franklin, who headlines Saturday’s UFC 103 event at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, had no trouble making weight at Friday’s official fighter weigh-ins.
The West Chester Twp. resident’s opponent, though, struggled mightily.
Despite recently fighting at 185 pounds and agreeing to fight Franklin (25-4 MMA, 12-3 UFC) at a catchweight of 195 pounds, Belfort (18-8 MMA, 7-4 UFC) struggled to make the 196-pound limit (most state commissions allow a one-pound “buffer” during weigh-ins).
Belfort initially weighed 197.5 pounds and got as light as 196.25 pounds while shedding clothes during his initial trip to the scale. Fighters who fail to make weight receive an additional hour to make the cutoff, and Belfort needed most of it to drop the quarter pound.
A tough weight cut is never a good sign for a fighter. Despite having 24 hours to rehydrate by fight night, fighters sometimes need days to truly recover from a hard cut.
UFC officials keep a close eye on their fighters and their weights throughout fight weeks, and rarely does a single event participant struggle. But three fighters from Saturday’s card, which airs on Spike TV (9 p.m.) and pay-per-view (10 p.m.), struggled. Belfort and Efrain Escudero eventually made weight, but Hermes Franca had to get approval (and give up a portion of his fight purse) to change his 155-pound contest with opponent Tyson Griffin to a catchweight fight of 159 pounds.
The full weigh-in results included:
MAIN CARD (Pay-per-view)
Vitor Belfort (196) vs. Rich Franklin (195)
Junior Dos Santos (236) vs. Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic (226)
Paul Daley (170) vs. Martin Kampmann (169.5)
Frank Trigg (170.25) vs. Josh Koscheck (170)
Hermes Franca (159) vs. Tyson Griffin (155.5)
PRELIMINARY CARD (Spike TV)
Cole Miller (155) vs. Efrain Escudero (156)
Tomasz Drwal (185) vs. Drew McFedries (185.25)
PRELIMINARY CARD (Un-aired)
Steve Lopez (154.5) vs. Jim Miller (154.5)
Rafaello Oliveira (155.25) vs. Nick Lentz (155)
Brian Foster (170.75) vs. Rick Story (170)
Jason Brilz (205.25) vs. Eliot Marshall (204.75)
Igor Pokrajac (203) vs. Vladimir Matyushenko (205)
Rob Emerson (155.5) vs. Rafael dos Anjos (155.5)
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Rich Franklin, UFC 103
UFC won’t return to Columbus in 2010
Despite three consecutive shows that scored some of the biggest crowds in the promotion’s history, the Ultimate Fighting Championship will not return to Columbus for a fourth show in 2010.
Beginning in 2007, the UFC hosted an annual pay-per-view event at Nationwide Arena in conjunction with the Arnold Sports Festival, a popular three-day sports and fitness exhibition.
However, at a press conference for this weekend’s UFC 103 event, UFC president Dana White said a fourth show isn’t on the calendar for 2010.
The news should come as a surprise to Ohio MMA fans, especially since White vowed to return.
“We love Columbus,” White said during Columbus’ festivities for UFC 96 in March. “Every year we’ve been here, we’ve been successful. We plan to keep going back every year and making this a regular thing.”
However, the UFC’s plans to tap into new markets has apparently forced the change.
The UFC made its Ohio (and Midwest) debut in 2007 with UFC 68, which featured Randy Couture’s upset of Tim Sylvia for the UFC heavyweight title. The event set a still-standing U.S. MMA attendance record (19,049) and shattered the Nationwide Arena record with a $3 million gate. The following year, the UFC returned to Columbus for UFC 82 (headlined by Anderson Silva vs. Dan Henderson), which drew 16,043 for a $2.2 million gate. And this year, UFC 96, headlined by Quinton Jackson vs. Keith Jardine, drew another 17,033 attendees for a $1.8 million gate.
