Wanderlei Silva had the chance to win in front of his home crowd for the first time in almost 12 years and make it a complete night of celebration for the Brazilian fans.
Rich Franklin had other plans.
The veteran American, who took the fight on three weeks’ notice as an injury replacement for Vitor Belfort, survived a near stoppage in the second round to win every other round and earn a decision over Silva in the main event of UFC 147 Saturday night in front of 16,643 fans at Estadio Jornalista Felipe Drumond in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais.
Franklin was crisp and effective in his striking in the five-round, 190-pound catchweight bout, his only misstep when Silva connected with a big shot late in the second round to knock him to the mat. The man known as The Axe Murderer then attacked with a flurry of punches on the ground that had referee Mario Yamasaki watching very closely and imploring Franklin to defend himself. He did just enough as the final seconds winded down and “Ace” was saved by the bell.
But Silva appeared to have expended way too much energy frantically looking for the finish, as he was sluggish in the third round, landing only two of 17 striking attempts compared to Franklin, who was 25 of 63 in the middle frame and also had the lone takedown of the contest.
Silva was a little bit more effective in the fourth, but still couldn’t keep up with the volume of his opponent. The fifth round was again dominated by Franklin until late, when Silva tried to pour on some late aggression, even at one point dropping his arms and taunting Franklin to try to end it, hoping for a mistake to capitalize on.
It was too late, as Franklin had a 122-58 edge in significant strikes landed in the standup-dominated affair en route to winning by a score of 49-46 on all three judges’ scorecards.
It was the first win for Franklin (29-6-1) in over two years; his last appearance was a loss to Forrest Griffin in February 2011. Afterward, the former UFC middleweight champion, who has been competing a light-heavyweight, said he’s looking at another possible title run back at 185 pounds.
The former Pride champion Silva (34-11-1, 1 NC), who was coming off a TKO win over Cung Le in November, has now lost seven of his past 10 fights.
In the other featured fight, the only other matchup that didn’t consist of two Brazilians, Fabricio Werdum again showed the progression of his striking game, earning a first-round TKO victory over the streaking Mike Russow.
The Brazilian, who used to be known as solely a grappler, nailed Russow with a well-placed uppercut to topple the Chicago police officer and then followed it with a barrage of rights to the side of his downed opponent’s head before referee Herb Dean finally put an end to it at the 2:28 mark.
It was the second straight win for Werdum (16-5-1) since his return to the UFC, following an impressive showing over Roy Nelson at UFC 143 in February, where he also dominated the standup. Russow (15-2-1) had his 11-fight win streak snapped.
The first two winners of The Ultimate Fighter Brazil were also crowned Saturday. Rony Mariano Bezerra, better known as Jason, became the first international TUF champion when he defeated Godofredo Pepey by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28) in the featherweight final, while Cezar Ferreira captured the middleweight title with a decision win over Sergio Moraes (30-27, 30-27, 29-28).
Rounding out the main card, one of the weakest the UFC has ever seen in terms of notoriety outside Brazil, Hacran Dias upset highly ranked featherweight contender Yuri Alcantara by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28).
The bonuses went to Franklin and Silva for Fight of the Night, Rodrigo Damm, who earned Submission of the Night for his rear naked choke of Anistavio Medeiros in the last fight of the undercard, and Marcos Vinicius, who nabbed Knockout of the Night for his stunning third-round stoppage of Wagner Campos. Each took home an extra $65,000.
