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Originally Posted by dannyjames
If he could "hang" at 205 the way he wants to, he would. No one wants to cut weight that that they do not have to cut. Ask any wrestler in the history of competition. Let us not forget that Franklin was at 205 and decided to drop to 185, it is what it is, a very good decision!
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I concur... He would hang at 205 in the UFC but I think it would be an absolute nightmare for him in Pride having to fight the likes of Silva, Shogun, Arona, Little Nog, Igor, Overeem, Nakamura and Randleman.
Those guys can all take a lot of punishment and they can deliver a ton as well so Rich would not be able to withstand the punishment as his chin is very suspect as proven by Lyoto, Tanner and the Crow.
Franklin knows that is the downside to his game and knows Chuck would KO him when one of those punches landed. In UFC he would be sitting at #2 forever untill more great strikers came into UFC and then he would drop lower and lower (assuming the future top talented LHW strikers have good chins).
In Pride he would hover towards the end of the top 10 say around Randleman and Nakamura.
In UFC at MW is the champion who will stay champion for a long time unless he decides to stand and trade with A. Silva, then Silva will have a very good chance at being MW champion come UFC 64. Franklin is a smart guy and will have a good gameplan coming into the fight as if at any point he feels he is getting handled in the standup he will look to take it to the ground. He just needs to make sure to do that before it is too late and gets KO'ed.