Rich Franklin: Staying at 205White: "We want Rich to stay at 205 pounds."

With a win over Wanderlei Silva, the biggest win of his career outside of the Middleweight class, Rich Franklin (25-4, 1 NC) looks to be aimed at a sincere run in the Light-Heavyweight division.

It would seem that in the eyes of Dana White, the UFC has a new face in the light-heavyweight division as a result of an imposing and convincing win over one of the UFC's most recognizable fighters, Franklin looks beyond the threshold of the weight class in which he entered the UFC, and now may be seeing title contention as a result.

"We want Rich to stay at 205 pounds. He's gonna stay in the 205-pound division and take a run at the title," said White, obviously sidestepping Wanderlei's request for a rematch.

"This opportunity popped up for him and Wanderlei to fight. It was at a great weight; he felt great at that weight. It was Wanderlei's first time making that weight. To him it was a big fight, close to the weight he wants to be at," White continued, expressing an understanding for both Wanderlei's lacking performance at UFC 99, and Rich's prospects as a light-heavyweight.

"I think (Rich's) next fight is gonna be with one of the top guys at 205," White said of Rich's next potential match-up. This clearly puts Rich on the fast-track to a title shot at 205, and perhaps gives Wanderlei more justification to eyeball the 185 lb. weight class, bypassing the loss to Rich Franklin as a mere unfortunate stumbled step on the way back down to middleweight.

Wanderlei Slims Down, Franklin Beefs Up

Wanderlei's stock doesn't drop so much as Rich's goes up, despite the fact that Wanderlei looked as flat as he did, as early as he did, in his losing performance. Much of this is attributed to word-of-mouth analysis that states Wanderlei had to cut 12 lbs. within 24 hours to make the agreed-upon catchweight of 195, which underscores how hard it's becoming for Wanderlei to lose as much weight at even his age of 32.

This could be attributed greatly to the vastly intensive training sessions the Chute Boxe camp used to undertake, which are legendarily rumored to have induced many a knockout in sparring sessions between their fighters. Of these sessions, it's said that Wanderlei was knocked out quite a few times. Some rumors even indicate that though Wanderlei got the better of Mauricio "Shogun" Rua during many of their sessions, Rua had KO'ed Wanderlei on more than one occasion, as had other fighters in the camp.

This was mainly considered irrelevant to Wanderlei for most of his career. Now that he's lost four of his last five fights, things may be coming a bit more into perspective in the sense of the effect that such harsh training sessions have had on his body, as well as his head.

Franklin's along for the ride

Turning down no option extended his way, Franklin spoke enthusiastically, if not generically about his advancement into the light-heavyweight class.

Before his fight, Franklin spoke of what a win over Wanderlei would do for him, and perhaps in a Freudian slip of sorts, even made mention of the title, albeit humbly.

"(Wanderlei's) a 205-pound fighter, so winning this fight would definitely put me in the mix of things at 205 pounds," Rich answered, when asked about the relevancy of his win to his advancement into a heavier class. "How close to the title it puts me, I’m not really sure, and I really don’t care at this point and time. My main objective is to win the next fight that’s in front of me, and if at some point in time that turns into a title run, then great.”

Following his fight, Franklin seemed happy to concede to Dana's acknowledgment of his accomplishment.

"I've always been one of those fighters that fights for the organization," Franklin said. "If they want me to fight a fight at 205, I'll fight at 205. If they want me to go back down and fight at 185, I'll fight at 185... whatever Dana asks me to do."

... which means Rich will be staying at 205. Who he fights next will certainly be of intrigue.

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