A light heavyweight bout between former champions Rich “Ace” Franklin and Forrest Griffin is in the works for a February 5th event tentatively titled UFC 127. MMAFighting.com first reported on the planned fight earlier today and bout agreements could be signed and made official soon.
Franklin, a former UFC Middleweight Champion, will look to continue his success in the light heavyweight division after a knockout win over Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell at UFC 115. He will face a fellow ex-UFC titleholder in Griffin, who will fight for the first time since UFC 106 last November.
Franklin (28-5-0, 1 NC) has been in limbo since his second loss to current UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson “The Spider” Silva at UFC 77, but the stunning victory over Liddell established Franklin as a possible contender at 205. A win over a second former champion in Griffin could place Franklin on a short list of challengers for the title, which is presently held by Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. An impressive 25 of Franklin’s wins have come by stoppage and his destruction of Liddell was made more noteworthy by the fact that Franklin had fought most of the fight with a broken hand. Franklin will hold a significant power advantage over Griffin in striking, but getting into a slugfest may not be in his best interests.
Griffin (17-6-0) shocked the world with back-to-back upsets of Rua and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson at UFC 76 and 86, respectively. The latter netted Griffin the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship, but he was unable to successfully defend the title and was knocked out by “Suga” Rashad Evans at UFC 92. A one-sided and embarrassing loss to Anderson Silva in a UFC 101 superfight forced Griffin to regroup and refocus, but he put on a solid performance in the UFC 106 rematch with Ortiz. As in their first fight, a Split Decision was rendered, but this time Griffin came out on top. A victory over Franklin would put Griffin right back in the title hunt as he looks to climb back to the top of the division.
The tentatively titled UFC 127 is set for February 5, 2011 at an as-yet unannounced venue. The event is expected to take place in Las Vegas, though no official announcements have been made.
(Photo Credit: Sherdog.com)