Rich Franklin has spent the latter part of his career being a guy who is willing to fight at either middleweight or light heavyweight and is almost always willing to step into a fight on short notice. He’ll be doing it again in June when he travels to Brazil to take on Wanderlei Silva at UFC 147 following Vitor Belfort’s withdrawl due to injury.
Here’s UFC.com’s announcement:
UFC 147 now has a new five-round main event, as former middleweight champion Rich Franklin will face “The Axe Murderer” Wanderlei Silva in a 190-pound catchweight feature. The two first met at UFC 99 in Germany, where Franklin earned a decision win and both men took home Fight of the Night bonuses.
Silva was originally set to face fellow TUF Brasil coach Vitor Belfort in a rematch of their 1998 UFC Brazil bout, but a hand injury forced Belfort to withdraw from the event.
It’s hard to imagine this show doing all that well. The main event has little title relevance and, while Franklin and Silva are beloved, the men are not huge draws.
Worse, Mike Russow vs. Fabricio Werdum is in the co-main event role without much else on the card likely to draw anything in terms of casual interest.