Anderson Silva

[Rapid]

Didnt know this but Rich Frankilin has fought in pride before, (and got his ass kicked) anyway to the point, looks like there might finally be some competition in the middleweight division for Rich, if not right now then in the future, anderlai silva knocked out the iron chinned Chris Leben within a minute and absolutly embarressed him, like rich silva's huge for a middleweight and at the moment he looks like he might give Rich a run for his money in the division, should be a good fight if and when it happens

[Ecks]

First off, Rich's fight in PRIDE was indeed pretty bad. I really though Franklin could win that one, but he stepped right into the punch.

As for Anderson Silva, his fight against Leben isn't enough to cement his ability to challenge Franklin though. Chris Leben isn't that great of a fighter, a lot of his fans are just kids who think he's cool because he insults people. I would like to see Silva get far in the UFC tho, especially because I hope he pioneers the way for some more PRIDE .vs. UFC competitions.

[Sever]

You meant AnderSON Silva, right? Nice guy that I am, I've edited the thread title for you :)
Rich Franklin has never fought in Pride. I believe the fight you're referring to was against Ryoto "Lyoto" Machida (a very good opponent) in Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye. That was when he was still fighting at 205lbs. 185's a better weight class for him
Anderson Silva is widely regarded as one of the best - if not the best - strikers at 185lbs and is one of my favourite fighters to watch. Word around the campfire is that a Silva/ Franklin fight will be Franklin's first fight back, possibly in November. While I think that Franklin's the more rounded fighter and the bigger man at 185lbs, this being his first fight back after a long layoff is very dangerous for him.

[pug32]

finally got bravo on poor mans cable :) so i watched the silva vs leben fight last night.

Haven't seen much of the UFC recently but for the hype the commenators gave leben, silva made very short work of him, superb strikes

[Apotheosis]

Leben is a B fighter, Silva just dominated him and he should have.

Silva has earned a title fight via his career, sort of like bringing in Fedor and saying he has to earn a title shot.

Silva is just as good if not better than anyone the UFC has to fight Franklin atm, not to mention he is a great striker which is what the US fans love.

[duderanch182]

Anderson Silva had some amazing striking skills against Chris Leben and could cause rich Franklin some probs but what is his ground skills like? I think Rich franklin should fight someone like mike swick first and anderson silva should fight david louiso (spelling sorry) and if the both win then franklin vs silva.

I think chris Leben is a good fighter but needs to create a better all round game and could learn a lot from a match like this.

[Apotheosis]

What ground skills?

I can't really say how bad he is on the ground, but he isn't good.

[duderanch182]

What ground skills?

I can't really say how bad he is on the ground, but he isn't good.

Sorry do you mean Chris Leben or Silva?

[Ecks]

Both aren't that great. Leben is horrible against wrestlers, and we'll have to see how Silva fares when he's got someone lying on top in dominant position.

[Sever]

What ground skills?

I can't really say how bad he is on the ground, but he isn't good.He's nowhere near as bad a grappler as you're making out
The only people to submit him are Ryo Chonan with a beautiful scissor sweep to heel hook and Daiju Takase. Chonan's known for his submissions and Silva was dominating him on the ground for most of the fight, and the Takase fight was over three years ago. He's beaten both Jeremy Horn and Carlos Newton (two very highly regarded submission specialists) and I believe he's back training with BTT. His ground skills aren't as good as his standup, but it's hardly a case of "get him to the ground and it's over"

[Apotheosis]

I was talking about Lebens ground skills, I don't know nearly enough about Silva to judge his skills.

[Sever]

My mistake :)
You're still shortchanging Leben though. How many times has he been submitted? He escaped a fully extended armbar from Joe Doerksen (mostly on heart) and the only person to really dominate him on the ground was Josh "The Blanket" Koschek - a phenomenal wrestler who just held him down for two rounds. Leben used to be an instructor at Team Quest - his ground skills are there, he just prefers to bang
You're right about him being a B level fighter though. Pretty much all these TUF runner-ups are (and quite a few of the winners too)

[Apotheosis]

No problem, as to Leben, I guess I might be shortchanging him. I admit I have yet to really see him on the ground aside from Koschek due to his desire to stand-up. Your right about the TUF fighters, although there are a few standouts, mainly Griffen and Bisping that I can think of off the bat. Diego ain't too shabby but we shall see when he goes against Karo.

[duderanch182]

If anderson silva is as good as you say on the ground then this could be a very tough fight for Rich Franklin and really look forward to it but do beleive Rich Franklin should fight someone else first and Anderson Silva should fight someone else to prove he is good enough as he cannot have just one fight in the UFC then given a title shot.

[Apotheosis]

Why not?

If Fedor came over would you make him "prove" himself in the UFC?

Silva was/is going to fight for the title in his first fight in the UFC(in the last 5 years).

[Rapid]

I know leben isnt much of a fighter, the reason i brought it to attention was because of the way and the speed in which he stopped leben, considering leben can walk through most punches without even shaking his head to rock him bad with just 2 seemingly lazy punches and then to knock him out with several more is impressive, i very much doubt anderson can bang with rich though, no one in the division can

oh yer and about richs fight, i just presumed it was pride because it was in a ring, my bad

[Sever]

i very much doubt anderson can bang with rich though, no one in the division canI HIGHLY doubt Rich Franklin would be willing to test your theory
I think Silva probably should get another fight or two before getting a title shot. He's not Fedor, he's not Wanderlei, he's not a champion or recently dethroned champion in another organisation, he's not a big name that most MMA fans know. What he IS is a top ten middleweight. However, there are some other guys in that division that have had some impressive wins recently that you could argue are more deserving of a title shot, and a couple more fights for Silva would hype the fight a lot more, especially if he dismantles a couple more guys the way he did Leben. 48 seconds on a UFN against Chris Leben isn't really enough for hyping a title fight and I'd like to see Franklin fight a can or two to see how he's healed up before stepping in there with Silva. He may come back like Frank Mir did

[Apotheosis]

Who do you see in that division who can beat Franklin?(Just curious)

As to banging with Franklin, Silva would love to keep in on the feet while Franklin would insist on bringing it to the ground.

[Oversoul]

If Fedor came over would you make him "prove" himself in the UFC?

You can't "make" Fedor do anything. :p

[duderanch182]

I cannot really think of any one that would be a decent challenge for Rich Franklin, the person I thought that would make it a close fight was David Louiso but Franklin destroyed him, The middleweight division has no great up and commers and ther moment imo.

Silva is great but as Sever said is he a champion or dethroned champion, no. That is why he should fight a couple of more times in the UFC.

[Sever]

Who do you see in that division who can beat Franklin?(Just curious)As far as the UFC's division goes; the division's fairly deep but more overrun with TUF cans than top talent these days. If Silva can keep it standing, he's got a seriously good chance. Franklin's chin's a little suspect, and Silva's possibly the best striker in the world at 185lbs. Word is Dean Lister's looking at dropping down to 185, he'd have a good chance since he's phenomenal on the ground and has solid takedowns and good defence on the feet, but I'd see Franklin taking that. Nathan Marquardt has had a disappointing run thus fan in the UFC, but he's very capable of taking Franklin out if his head's there.
Mike Swick would be a good return fight for him since he's racked up some impressive wins lately and on paper, Franklin should beat him. If he fought Swick, at least we'd have an idea of how his recovery went

[duderanch182]

Mike Swick would be a good return fight for him since he's racked up some impressive wins lately and on paper, Franklin should beat him. If he fought Swick, at least we'd have an idea of how his recovery went

I agree with this as Mike Swick is pretty good and iirc he has only lost once and that was Chris Leben with one good punch.

I do agree that there are too many TUF in the UFC at the moment and it does not look like there are not too many good up and coming fighters in the UFC at the moment.

[Apotheosis]

Is Brandon Vera fighting as a heavyweight?

He is good, and could give Franklin a run for his money.

[Sever]

Brandon Vera would need to drop about forty pounds to make 185 - he's not gonna be doing that anytime soon (especially since hardly any of that is fat)

[Apotheosis]

Isn't he the one saying he would take the Heavyweight, Light-heavy and the Middleweight belts?

[Sever]

He said heavyweight and light heavyweight, he never said a word about middleweight.
The guy's 225lbs, he'd have to go through hell to cut that kind of weight. Dropping 20lbs to make 205 is feasible (though holding both titles is a lofty ambition), making 185 wouldn't happen unless he made that division a full time commitment

[Apotheosis]

Oh ok, my bad.

I knew he wanted more than 1 belt but I guess I added 1 too many.

He wants 2, Penn is the guy who wants 3, and I would be perfectly happy to have 1.

[Sever]

It's official - at UFC 64, Anderson Silva will be getting his title shot against a returning Rich Franklin (Source: UFC.com (http://www.ufc.com/index.cfm?fa=news.detail&gid=3163)). Very tough fight for Franklin at the best of times, let alone coming off a seven month layoff and that many injuries. This'll be Silva's best chance to get the title. I'd rather have seen him take on a couple of other guys first, but either way it's a great fight
Also on the card: Florian vs Sherk for the lightweight title. May I be the first to say :bang:

[stump]

Would rather see Silva fight Tanner first - if he could beat Tanner then he'd have earned his place for a title shot against Franklin.

I agree with you Sever - with a striker like Silva there's little room for ring rust so it's a bit of a gamble for Rich. But the UFC have to do something to add some excitment into the middleweight division - a single dominant fighter like they have currently in the Middleweights and LightHeavyweights does little to spark exciting fights...doubt they'd be above stacking the odds in Silva's favour in order to make a big rematch...or maybe I'm being a bit too cynical :)

[Apotheosis]

Should be a good fight, I guess we will see just how good Franklin is coming off of a long layoff.

Florian vs Sherk- I hate Florian, he and the Crow rely way to much on their elbows which cause their fights to end prematurely and often anti-climatic.