September 19th of 2009 was a great event. UFC 103 (Dallas, Texas) hosted the match up between Vitor Belfort and Rich Franklin. There were also other exciting match ups, Junior Dos Santos vs Cro Cop nad Josh Koscheck vs Frank Trigg coming to my mind first, but I’m writing this fight coverage as a prelude to what will happen on the UFC 126. So, be sure to stick around and read my Vitor Belfort vs Rich Franklin fight coverage. You can also watch some of the UFC 103 videos that I was able to find on Youtube below this article.
Vitor “The Phenom” Belfort Is Still Very Fast
I don’t know why people are giving Vitor Belfort such small chances against Anderson Silva. I mean, I’m reading how Silva will knock him out all over the internet. If you had the chance to watch Belfort vs Franklin, you’d come to understanding that only one split second divides any fighter and the floor when he is facing Belfort. Belfort’s hands are NOT slow, and he still has that moment of intuition where he can knock you out in a second.
Let’s take a closer look at his fight against Rich “Ace” Franklin. First of all, you’ll notice that Belfort hardly threw any of the punches before he landed that deadly one. This gives me confidence that he will not waste his punches like Shane Carwin did against Brock Lesnar. When it comes to punching in mixed martial arts, very few people can reach the heights Belfort has reached, and nothing has changed since he was 19.
Rich “Ace” Franklin Is Not A Game
I also still don’t realize how can people critize Rich Franklin. I mean, the guy was a middleweight champion for years. He destroyed Chuck Liddell, the legend of the UFC and mixed martial arts in general. Franklin is a solid, well rounded fighter, and I think that he deserves some respect.
Who Finished Franklin Faster?
When it comes to UFC 126, many people are returning back to the UFC 103, arguing that Belfort will destroy Silva because he finished Franklin much faster than Silva did. Although I do think that the Phenom will win, I also think that tis is a very invalid argument. As UFC president Dana White has said hundreds of times (words of wisdom 
): “you don’t know what will happen until the fight finishes”, we can’t simply pull any analogies off of it. However, what I can see from these two fights (Vitor Belfort vs Rich Franklin and Anderson Silva vs Rich Franklin) is this: Anderson’s Muay Thai clinching is very, very dangerous. I wouldn’t recommend that Belfort steps in mindlessly. The second thing that I can get out of those two fights is that Belfort is still as fast as he was before, and that even if Silva blinks he’ll find himself on the floor.
What do you guys think about the Vitor Belfort and Rich Franklin fight, and how do these fights relate to the upcoming UFC 126 event?