The UFC have been seeking a big name opponent to replace Vitor Belfort against Wanderlei Silva in the main event of June’s UFC 147 event in Brazil, and it appears they’ve finally got their man.
Rich ‘Ace’ Franklin has now stepped in to fight Silva in a rematch of their ‘Fight Of The Night’ performance at UFC 99 in Germany which Franklin won by unanimous decision.
That original bout was fought at a catchweight of 195lbs and it’s been revealed that this time around it’ll be fought at 190lbs.
Franklin had originally been scheduled to make his long awaited return to the middleweight division at UFC 148 where he had been lined up against Cung Le, but the former champion has always been ‘a company man’ and so when he was asked to step in and save the UFC 147 card he did just that.
Since defeating Silva, Franklin has only fought three times due to a number of injuries, claiming a famous KO victory over Chuck Liddell at light-heavyweight and losing to both Vitor Belfort and Forrest Griffin.
During the same period Silva has picked up wins over Michael Bisping and Cung Le, but has also suffered a 27 second KO loss to Chris Leben.
