Chuck Liddell vs. Rich Franklin official for UFC 115
by Natalia Baage on April 12, 2010

The rumors were true. Moments ago, the UFC announced that former light-heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell and former middleweight champion Rich Franklin will headline the UFC 115 event.

Initially Tito Ortiz was supposed to face Liddell, as the two are currently taking part in The Ultimate Fighter 11. However, for the past month, rumors have been swirling about Ortiz's health. Reports have shown that he did not finish filming TUF 11, and that Franklin stepped in to finish out the season.

When reports were swirling about Ortiz's health, he tweeted about being in the hospital, but his hospital visit had nothing to do with any illness or problem with his spine and skull - as the rumors said. Ortiz tweeted that he simply had a bout of flu. The doctors had been skeptical of the swine flu, and kept Ortiz, but Ortiz revealed that it was just a case of the regular flu, not the H1N1 virus.

However, now that Ortiz is feeling better, we have not heard much from the UFC surrounding the Liddell/Franklin/Ortiz triangle. Many were irritated that the UFC failed to comment about Franklin's involvement with TUF and a potential fight with Liddell. Even just less than a week ago, UFC President Dana White told reporters that the headlining fight would be between Liddell and Ortiz.

A few weeks ago, a photo was anonymously sent to a MMABay, showing Liddell's and Franklin's photo hanging on The Ultimate Fight gym wall. However, Franklin's picture did not look new, and the anonymous picture was never verified.

But now, fans have their answer. While there is no new word about Ortiz, and whether he will fight in the near future, UFC 115 is set for June 12 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Ticket pre-sale starts tomorrow, regular tickets go on sale beginning Thursday.

Make sure to check back with us the day of the event for free, live, round-by-round coverage of UFC 115 right here at FiveKnuckles.com! Join expert analyst Mike Williams as he takes you through the entire fight card blow-by-blow and then keep it right here for all the post-fight news and notes you can handle!

 |  (36) Comments Ceelarence: War franklin! Internet Tufguy: I think Chuck can manage a decision W. D_V: i don't even know. pretty lame main event but i guess fitch vs alves will save this card. Scott Asnault: this is not a good fight for franklin. Ceelarence: This forum is dead so Im gonna go ahead and get this started. Im pretty sure that this is going to be somewhat of an exciting fight. From first glance, it doesnt, but once you look a little deeper, it has all the making of a great fight. Im excited to see if Chuck has improved his defense at all. If so, this will be great. Im not saying that Franklin can or will KO him. I dont think he has the power too. Now a lot of you questio his chin, but he didnt get KO'd by scrubs. Rashad, Rmapage and Shogun. All in the top 5. Thats nothing to be ashamed of. His chin isnt what it used to be for sure, but still not as bad as everyone thinks. If he can use his kicks, wrestling, and illusive stand up, he should come away with the victory. Now for Franklin. He has many ways to win this fight. More than Chuck imo. He has the much cleaner stand up. Much more technical and crisp than chucks. As far as the ground, I give Rich the advantage there as well. I dont care who you are, if you train with JG on a daily, youre gonna have a good ground game. Bottom line. Against a guy like Chuck, it doesnt need to be great. Good enough to defend and stand back up. Which I believe, Franklins is. He has the much stronger clinch game as well. Yes, he got mauled by Silva in the clinch, but we all know that Chuck is no Silva. In fact, I dont think Chuck has much of a clinch game at all. Which is not good against a guy like Franklin. I think he is the overall stronger guy in this fight. Chuck is bigger and has his wrestling base, but Franklin is smarter and can use his positioning to over power Chuck imo. I have this going to Franklin by UD/possible TKO. Im loving it. Two guys that I LOVE to watch fight Good read too Natalia :) Ceelarence: Come on! Somebody argue with me! Please :D Razia: What weight class? D_V: I'm inclined to think rich has a shot, too. His striking is as good and Cuck's lost some power. Maybe Chuck'll G&p a bit for a decision. I think he is a good enough wrestler to do that. nygiant: Im not really sure how to anaylize this fight but given that, I believe, Rich is also starting to lose his touch I have to go with Chuck...I do believe Chuck has more KO power if Chuck(hopefully) is finally working on throwing an uppercut while keeping his other hand up by his (to protect the counter punch) instead of down by his side I can see Chuck taking this...I can't see how Franklin will get Chuck down. Remember Chuck is more of a natural 205 er as well...he will be the larger fighter. Scott Asnault: the more i watch rich franklin, the less i think he is a good striker. while franklin has been able to strike well with some, he has a problem with strikers that are at his level or better. a. silva, w. silva and belfort gave him fits as did henderson. in my opinion, was never really tested in the UFC until loiseau and then his final test was a. silva and we all now how that went. while liddell may have lost some power, his striking is very much light years better than franklin. i also feel that the level of competition faced is much higher for liddell. and if franklin gets pushed into a corner or cageside, which is what liddell likes to do, franklin doesn't react well. this is a bad fight for rich franklin. franklin fights in a way that falls right into how liddell destroys people. D_V: I agree with Scott about Franklin but disagree about Liddell. sure, Rich isn't an awesome striker but he's as good, technically, as Liddell. Chuck is an awful striker. Every time he's fought guys that don't suck at striking he's head butted the canvas. D_V: chuck doesn't need jits, he gets back to his feet better than anyone still. he's just oddly great at that. Mickey knox: I see Franklin taking the win with a UD. Storm: hope Franklin wins. mma3dge: WAYYYYYYYYYYYYY BETTER FIGHT. i will actually be pumped to see this bout. i don't care to watch Tito get slaughtered a third time. this is exciting! GO HARD: maybe chuck will pull off the bravos vaporizer. MAStudent: I am moderately interested in this fight. Maybe 80% interested, but wouldn't buy the PPV just for this fight. There needs to be other more modern star power. Stature wise- Chuck has been a man among boys in his time. He has put the fear of whatever-you-believe in people. To me Rich was always a B+ fighter. even as champ. Something about him isn't solid enough. With that said. Rich may be one of the top 2 or 3 outside scorers in UFC history. People laugh, but he was scoring on A SIlva fro outside before Silva waded through it to get the clinch and rearrange his face. He lands nearly at will if people stay away/ long range. His bottom game on the ground is impeccable if you ask me. very clean, never stays there long. Of course, who cares? Chuck won't stay out there, he will press Rich. And he won't care about taking Rich down. Rich doesn't have bottom end power. He accumulates a KO or wins by UD. Chuck wades through guys like that. As soon as he feels there's no good power, he starts wading in. Rich falls apart with this. I thought Rich had Hendo beat, but he was literally afraid of being hit once by Hendo's power shot. He didn't press the last round and lost. In fact, though Chuck is losing because he is getting older, Rich never was "great" because he can't close against sturdy opposition. He just keeps pot shotting instead of dominating. To me the story of this fight is whether Chuck's chin has deteriorated enough for Rich to accumulate shots on him when he misses those counters he sets up on purpose. Chuck used to bait people by keeping his hands apart so he could slip sideways and bring a hook. He did that to Rashad, and Rashad's straight got there before he could get the hook in there. If chucks tries that, Rich might win a UD. If Chuck just wades in, short fight and Chuck gets to stay in the UFC. Rich then gets to think of a shorter, easier to remember name, because his brain is turning into scrambled eggs. This is a good fight for new MMA fans to watch. It will be easy to see what is happening and the action will be clear. Ares: The 115 main card is very much lacking at the moment, Fitch/Alves better be cleared for it, Cro Cop/Barry as the co-main event doesn't seem right. Noble_Jay: I'm disappointed that Ortiz won't be finishing the season. I was ready to see Liddell dominate him for the third time. I admit I'm starting to like Ortiz as coach. But, that just isn't enough to make up for all the stupid things that come out of his mouth. I'm happy to see they choose Franklin to replace him, though. He seems as if he would be a good coach. I just don't know if he'll be able to tame all the wild personalities that Ortiz choose for his team. They might not respect him as a Coach/fighter. I still want to see Liddell's team win the season though. As for the fight, I want to say that Liddell will win in dominating fashion, but at the same time I'm relying heavily on the old Liddell coming to this fight, and making Franklin play the stand up game. But, to be honest, with Liddell's chin the way it is, Franklin has enough crisp stand up to finish him, and he might come in with Jardine's gameplan, and try to throw Liddell off with kicks. I'm just not sure how I'll feel about Franklin getting a (T)KO on Liddell. I can understand Rampage, Evans, and Shogun. But, Franklin? I just don't know.
HOW WILL THE THIAGO ALVES VS. MARTIN KAMPMANN FIGHT END AT UFC ON FX 2?
Alves def. Kampmann via TKO/KO
Alves def. Kampmann via submission
Alves def. Kampmann via decision
Kampmann def. Alves via TKO/KO
Kampmann def. Alves via submission
Kampmann def. Alves via decision
TAKE ANOTHER POLL!