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UFC 115 proving ground for Iceman, Ace & Vancouver
0 Comments | Posted by Jon Lane in MMA News
Shameless plug: I’ll be talking UFC 115 on the Sirius Fight Club (Sirius 126/XM 243) Thursday at 2:45 p.m. EST.
Rich Franklin was home one night when the phone rang. On the line was Dana White with the news that Tito Ortiz had pulled out of his scheduled UFC 115 bout with Chuck Liddell to have neck surgery similar to the fusion procedure he received in October 2008 to correct lower back problems. It was deep into taping of Season 11 of The Ultimate Fighter and the news was top secret to anyone beyond UFC headquarters and the house.
White asked for a favor: for Franklin to take over Ortiz’s team during the final week – Punishment fighter Kris McCray had reached the semifinals – and replace Ortiz in the main event of UFC 115 against the Iceman.
Franklin, his last fight a first-round TKO loss to Victor Belfort in September, accepted. Going into the Belfort fight “Ace” had no time to rest; it was a mere three months since he defeated former PRIDE Middleweight champion Wanderlei Silva at a catchweight of 195 pounds to become the first fighter in UFC history to compete in four consecutive fights in four different countries. He admitted to being “mentally cached” to where he was looking at the clock and counting down the minutes before the end of his training sessions. By the time White called, Franklin, having granted himself the right to say no to a couple of previous offers, was refreshed and better focused, even if it’ll be a shade under nine months since the last time he was in the Octagon.
“This was about the time frame that I wanted to jump back in anyway, so you know some time off, had the ability to physically reset, mentally reset and the timing was perfect,” Franklin said during a conference call.
Liddell has been inactive too – for 14 months. The issue of ring rust has been examined in this space and was brought to the forefront by Quinton Jackson after his UFC 114 loss to Rashad Evans. Considered the greatest light-heavyweight ever, Liddell enters Saturday a loser of four out of his last five– three by knockout or TKO and two (Jackson, Evans) that left him on queer street. His latest loss to Mauricio Rua convinced White (temporarily) and many, many others that the Iceman’s fighting days were over. Liddell responded by changing his diet – winning a bet with White that he’d get down to 215 pounds – and at age 40 he looks tremendous physically. White Tweeted on Tuesday that Liddell “didn’t look this good when he was 22.”
“My timing’s on. I’m in great shape, I’m ready to go,” Liddell said. “I’ll let you know after the fight if I have ring rust, I don’t know. I mean I don’t see it being a problem. I think that’s psychological for some guys. I love being in the ring so hopefully that’s going to let me avoid having any quote unquote ring rust, whatever it is.”
Liddell (21-7) has won 13 of his MMA bouts by KO/TKO, including seven straight during the peak of his career that began with his second-round knockout of Ortiz at UFC 47 in 2004. He’ll be looking for the quick knockout Saturday night, but can just as easily find himself looking at the lights. Would that finally put Liddell at the point of no return?
“I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it,” Liddell said. “I said end of the fight I’m going to decide what I want to do next so I plan on making another run for the title and that’s what I want to do, so we’ll see what happens.”
Prior to the Rua fight, Liddell’s longtime trainer, John Hackleman, enlisted 1976 Olympic gold medalist Howard Davis, the director of boxing at American Top Team and one of Liddell’s assistant coaches during The Ultimate Fighter. Davis worked with Liddell’s footwork and defense, and introduced shadowboxing techniques to help slip and block punches. Before Shogun decked him, Liddell looked lighter and quicker on his feet compared to recent fights.
“He’s good at defense and getting in and getting out,” Liddell said of Davis. “We’re known for power so it’s kind of like a yin and yang kind of thing. I’m offensive, my best defense is good offense kind of thing and he’s been working my defense. It helps, gold medalists, most outstanding in the Olympics coming in, and I respect him. John brought him in and I respect John’s opinion so he came and brought him in to work for me so it was easy to work with him.
“I’m a pretty good student. You can tell that if I decided to work with somebody I’ll listen to what they say and try to figure out how to do what they’re doing.”
Rob Bradford is Franklin’s longtime boxing coach and, in Ace’s words, “the master craftsman of my footwork” who played a big role in Franklin becoming UFC middleweight champion in 2005, a reign he enjoyed 16 months before running into a buzzsaw named Anderson Silva. The appeal of watching two greats headline a show, and a chance for Vancouver to see a UFC show period, led to UFC 115 selling out in 30 minutes after ticket presale began, the fastest in UFC history. This combined with a strong show will probably convince the Vancouver City Council to give passing grades to a two-year trial run, if not stop a few people from complaining.
“I say to the people that have these kind of criticisms of the sport that often times they’re just not educated enough about what we do,” Franklin said. “People talk about there not being enough rules and I think that if you actually saw how complex the rule system was for this sport you’d be surprised. Once they see us and how we conduct ourselves as athletes then they’re going to be a bit surprised because we’ll break the stigma of, you know, the perception of what they think we are.”
“I’ve got a college degree, he’s a math teacher for Christ sakes,” Liddell said. “I mean we’re normal people. We train hard, we work at this very hard, and we go out there and this is our form of competing. We like doing it, we like going out there and this is how we show we’re the best at what we do. I think it’s going to be an exciting fight.”
MMA fans in Vancouver are already convinced. It’s up to Liddell – and Franklin – to convince many more they’ve still got it.
Follow Jon Lane on Twitter @MMAjunkieJon.
