The Week in UFC: Oops!

After getting my UFC fix with The Ultimate Fighter and Fight Night 19 on Wednesday night, I had a difficult choice to make. On one hand, I could spend Saturday night watching Floyd Mayweather, the most purely talented boxer alive, ply his trade. On the other, I could see a much more meaningful UFC card and catch the return of Vitor Belfort (in addition to giving myself something to write about this week). Choices, choices!

But actually, I punted. I spent the weekend away from the television, enjoying a beach wedding in South Carolina. Worked on my tan (nonexistent). Drank on the beach (girly boat drinks). Soaked up the surf (got sand in my board shorts).

DT's Law Of Boat Drinks: Never drink anything more colorful than your shirt. Thing is, I only own Hawaiian shirts.

Well, apparently the fight game needs me around, because when I got back and tried to absorb every bit of information about UFC 103 that I could, I noted the show continued a disturbing pattern from Wednesday night. It seemed like people had lost far more than they gained, and in some cases, had out-and-out screwed up.

Oops, Rich Franklin! I get it. Rich Franklin has been the loyal soldier for the UFC for quite some time. He's the Silvio to Dana's Tony Soprano. But it's about time for Rich, after getting knocked out in the first round by Vitor Belfort, to start putting his career first. Right now, he's a man without a country: too big for middleweight, but too past-his-prime to compete in the stacked light heavyweight division. Being "the 195 gatekeeper" is not the legacy he wants for his career. He's too good a guy to be the fighter that leaves fans saying "Couldn't they schedule anything better than another Franklin main event?" He's earned the right to call his shots with Joe Silva; get himself an undercard tuneup or two at the weight division he wants and start a serious run towards a belt... or get a big money fight or two then hang 'em up. Frankly, if he can't hang with Belfort, I'm starting to think he should choose the latter.

Belfort, meanwhile, was impressive in his return, but I stand by my initial assessment: he's not going to be able to get his hands on the Spider, who should be able to dance around him like he did to Forrest Griffin.

Article Author: Matt DeTura

Matt DeTura is a sports nut -- particularly, a big fan of MMA -- currently located in Washington, DC. He can be followed at http://www.twitter.com/mdetura.

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