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Manager: Too early for Franklin retirement talk
Related: Photos | More on UFC 77
Monday, October 22, 2007
CINCINNATI — Saturday's Ultimate Fighting Championship event at Cincinnati's U.S. Bank Arena exposed the massive talent gap between Anderson Silva and the sport's other middleweights.
Former champion Rich Franklin was considered the man most likely to defeat the shockingly well-rounded Brazilian striker.
Extras
He didn't.
Instead, the 16,054 fight fans who packed Cincinnati's riverfront venue (and the millions more who watched on pay-per-view) witnessed a similar – though slightly longer – version of Silva and Franklin's first fight from 12 months prior. Working from the clinch and delivering a brutal series of knees and crisp punches, Silva (20-4) dropped Franklin and forced a referee's stoppage for the second-round TKO victory.
With the loss, Franklin falls to 22-3.
Soon after the main-event fight came reports of the 33-year-old's possible retirement.
Those reports were premature.
"Rich still has a lot left to accomplish in this sport," said J.T. Stewart, Franklin's publicity manager. "It's too early for him to even consider retirement at this point."
Likewise, UFC President Dana White – the fight executive who strategically blueprinted Franklin's rise to the top – says he'll be there no matter how far Franklin may fall.
"Rich Franklin will always be a part of this organization," White said. "He's one of the team players here in the UFC, and he's going to be here forever."
Despite the job security, Franklin's unlikely to get another title shot anytime soon. With two losses to Silva, Franklin's unlikely to get a third. He'll need the belt to change hands. But after Silva's performance on Saturday, the thought of anyone beating Silva seems downright absurd.
White, though, remains optimistic.
Among the names he tossed around in a post-UFC 77 press conference was Thales Leites (12-1), a submission specialist with four straight victories in the UFC. He also mentioned recent UFC signee Ricardo Almeida (8-2) and the talented, though oft-injured, David Terrell (6-2).
The most impressive of the bunch, though, is Dan Henderson, a two-time Olympic Greco-Roman wrestler.
However, White would first need Henderson to agree to a contract extension — not to mention an equally difficult task of convincing the fighter to drop from the 205-pound division to 185 pounds.
"I want to head butt the guy every time I talk to him," said White. "He could be a force at (185), and it'd be a great match-up (with Silva). But he's very hard-headed."
Dann Stupp is editor-in-chief of MMAjunkie.com, a content-partner site of Yahoo! Sports. For complete coverage of UFC 77, go to www.mmajunkie.com.
