Rich Franklin

Rich Franklin is an American based Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighter, born in Cincinnati, Ohio on October 5, 1974. This former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Middleweight defender weighs 84 kg and is 185 cm tall.

Also known as ‘Ace’, Rich Franklin was previously a math teacher at Oak Hills High School in his hometown, before stepping into the MMA industry. Franklin holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and also master’s degree in education from the University of Cincinnati.

Even though Franklin is well rounded and seizes strong submission and grappling skills, he prefers the knockout move to defeat his competitors. By viewing several instructional video tapes, he learnt submission combating, and today, is renowned for possessing excellent fighting skills.

Presently, Rich Franklin trains at facilities administered by Rob Radford, a boxing instructor; Neal Rowe, a Muay Thai instructor, and Jorge Gurgel, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt holder. In addition, Franklin has been trained and associated with Meat Truck Inc.

Before fighting for the title, Rich Franklin had a record of 17 wins and just a single loss that came against Lyoto Machida via knockout in the second session of the contest. However, Franklin has registered famous wins against several prominent fighters such as Ken Shamrock, Jorge Rivera, Evan Tanner, and Edwin Dewees.

During the year 2005, Rich Franklin handed over defeat to Evan Tanner at UFC 53 for the second time and won the UFC Middleweight Championship. On November 19, 2005, he secured his title against Nate Quarry through knockout in the very first round at UFC 56. On March 4, 2006, he carried on his wining form and beat David Loiseau in a unanimous 5 round decision. However, disaster struck in the second round where Franklin broke his left hand, which saw him out of action for several months.

However, at the time when he made a come back to the MMA arena, Rich Franklin lost his title to the Brazilian fighter Anderson Silva in the main UFC 64 event, held on October 14, 2006. Thereafter, Rich underwent surgery on October 19 by reason of nasal fracture that took place in the match against Anderson.

On March 3, 2007, Franklin defeated Jason Macdonald via technical knockout at UFC 68. It was after the fight that Franklin called Anderson to the ring and announced that he and Dana White had agreed for a title match in Cincinnati. Nonetheless, certain contractual obligations by Silva pushed the timing of the match further, thereby scheduling the contest at the U.S. Bank Arena in Franklin’s hometown, on October 20, 2007, for UFC 77.