Hey guys,
I barely cared about this fight until I had to write something about it - then the more I thought about it the more interesting a match up it became!
Hope you don't mind clicking the link and as always cheers for your support,
Jack
Cung Le and Rich Franklin are two fairly exciting fighters who are decent finishers and pretty competent in most areas of the game. They also represent an underwhelming main event for the UFC's first card in China; in fact the main selling point seems to be that Cung Le is of Asian descent. That is a gripe with the card, however, which is exceptionally weak. As a stand alone fight this bout is full of interesting possibilities and exciting variables. Le's kicks are some of the best in the sport and certainly the most varied and dynamic, meanwhile Franklin is one of the few of an era of champions to cling to near relevancy having protected his jawline far better than his peers; Chuck Liddell and Wanderlei Silva.
Today we'll look at some of the features of both men's styles and how they match up.
The Goofy Style of Rich Franklin
Rich Franklin has done a marvelous job of staying in shape and staying conscious throughout recent years where his three most recent opponents and peers for a large part of his career; Chuck Liddell, Forrest Griffin and Wanderlei Silva have all shown a marked deterioration in physical durability. Franklin's job has always been to fight smart - he has never had one skill which has overshadowed all the others, he's just a guy who is slightly above average in all disciplines but not particularly amazing in any one.
Recently Franklin has focused on his striking which has certainly improved technically since his physical prime. Any time I am asked to illustrate how striking in mixed martial arts has improved I reference Rich Franklin's bouts with Evan Tanner - where both men circle the cage for some time, crossing their back foot behind their front. That's a day one kickboxing error and it was happening in a world middleweight title bout as recently as 2005!
The only words I can think of to accurately capture the style of Rich Franklin are "awkward" or "goofy". Franklin's muscled physique looks awkward and wooden when he moves to punch or kick, but he still manages to get decent power on his punches when he tries. A great example of Franklin's herky jerk style is his long lead hook which extends almost straight. This clumsy punch rarely has much power, but he was able to clip Anderson Silva several times with it. In the still below Franklin jabbed and hooked off of the same hand - it was clumsy but it wasn't the left - right - left offense that Silva is so used to.
Franklin doesn't have great form in any of his punches and rarely throws combinations exceeding two punches, but Franklin's love of lunging into his punches means he can severely hurt his opponents if he connects. It also means that he is in turn very easy to:
1) Tie up, as Anderson Silva and Forrest Griffin did so successfully.
2) Stun with strikes; as Wanderlei Silva and Chuck Liddell both managed to do as Franklin lunged at them.
