By James Brydon, Sportsnet.ca
MONTREAL — Rich (Ace) Franklin and Travis (The Serial Killer) Lutter may appear similar but they have very different resumes.
Both are roughly the same height, same age and got started in MMA around the same time, but the fighting experiences for the middleweight mixed martial artists are quite different.
Lutter, from Dallas, Texas, has 13 career fights under his belt, only four in the Octagon, and he hasn’t fought in over a year. Franklin, from Cincinnati, OH, is a former champion with almost twice as many bouts overall, and three fights in UFC since Lutter’s last one.
The six-foot-two Lutter gets most of his wins by way of submission while Franklin, six-foot-one, has a strong focus on standup.
And as the two prepare for their fight Saturday at the Bell Centre, which is on the televised card of UFC 83: Serra vs. St. Pierre 2, they are expecting drastically different reactions.
While Lutter, 24, has never been to Montreal before, Franklin, 23, has an early connection to the city. He fought for the Montreal-based UCC, the former TKO Fighting Championship, in 2002 before he started his UFC career. Four years later, he was UFC champion and bona fide star, and featured in the main event of UFC 58: USA vs. Canada, where he ironically defeated Montreal’s David Loiseau in a defence of his middleweight championship.
The notoriety only helped his popularity, even north of the border.
“It seems I have a pretty good fan base here in Canada,” said Franklin. “Which is odd, because it would seem that the whole UFC vs. Canada thing that we did might kind of destroy that. But, nah, I’ve had a pretty decent following and I would imagine I would be a favourite.”
Lutter is pretty certain the crowd will be on his opponent’s side. Lutter’s last fight was a year ago, scheduled as a championship bout against Anderson Silva, who had just taken the belt from Franklin. But Lutter was unable to make the designated weight of 185 pounds and it was changed to a non-title bout. That never sits well with fans.
“I just came in too heavy,” Lutter admitted. “I thought I could make an impossible cut. I figured out I cannot cut from 208 pounds, it’s just too much. It was a learning experience.
“Sometimes you think you’re a machine and you can do anything you say can do, and then you figure out that you’re human and sometimes can’t do some of those things.”
Franklin feels for him.
“That’s kind of a shadow hanging over his head, and he’s really a good guy,” Franklin said. “I hope that that’s not something that people will necessarily remember his career by.”
Unlike Serra-St. Pierre, anyone looking to find some anymosity between these two won’t find it. While Franklin did playfully fake like he was going to attack Lutter from the podium at Thursday’s news conference, it was clear their bout will be one between a couple of guys who really respect each other and rarely have things to say that are too provocative.
But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot on the line. The winner would put himself right back in title contention, while the loser will probably be looking at a long climb back up the ladder.
While there are differences between them as fighters, circumstances heading into this fight are similar. Both had to have a previously scheduled fight postponed due to injury. Lutter though is on a much longer layoff, having not fought in over a year. But he discounts any notion of having any “Octagon rust.”
“This isn’t the first time that I’ve had a long layoff,” said Lutter. “You know, that part doesn’t bother me.”
Franklin meanwhile was originally scheduled to fight last month in Columbus, Ohio, his home state. But an injury forced his fight to be postponed, so he is not only fighting in a different town, he’s also not in the main event for the first time in a while. That suits Franklin, who has fought in Columbus before as well as his home city of Cincinnati, just fine.
“I’m getting asked a lot less questions, and I kind of like it that way, so it’s nice,” said Franklin at Thursday’s news conference. “I’m in Georges’ home town and the spotlight’s on him. It’s difficult thing to deal with. Quite honestly, I’m glad I’m not in that situation again.”
Franklin (22-3) should also be glad he’s facing someone other than Silva this time. In his past two fights against the UFC middleweight champion, he hasn’t lasted beyond the second minute of the second round, suffering utterly destructive TKO defeats. Apart from those, he only has one other loss in his entire career. But those two defeats clearly had a negative effect on his confidence, so a good performance Saturday will be key for him.
Lutter (9-4), on the other hand, had a much more positive experience in his last fight against Silva. He too lost, by second-round submission, but he fought the UFC champion about as close as anyone has in recent years. In fact, he thinks he can do even better.
“Yes I can beat him, but I don’t know if I’ll get a chance to fight him,” Lutter responded when asked at the news conference. “It’s not up to me. It’s up to the powers that be, if they’ll let me. And first I’ve got to fight Rich.
“Going out there and doing as well as I did against Anderson definitely helps (with my confidence). But Rich is a different opponent than Anderson. And he brings a different set of problems, and I’m really excited to fight him.”
Franklin feels he may have had a better chance in his past fight against Silva had he been able to work with renowned trainer and strategist Matt Hume more in preparation for it. But despite the loss, he was really happy with the work he did with him, so he decided to go to Seattle for nearly a month to train with him at his home ahead of this one. And he feels he’s coming in well prepared.
“Travis is probably going to try to take me down, and I’m going to spend a good portion trying to defend the takedown and standing up,” Franklin said. “Travis is a smart fighter though, so I wouldn’t put it past him to come out and throw some punches and have a few tricks up his sleeve. We’ve covered all the scenarios in training so I feel comfortable with how this fight’s going to go.”
