With five highly impressive showings in his past six contests, Rich Franklin is riding a hot steak. He continued that streak Saturday night with a first round knockout over legendary light-heavyweight Chuck Liddell. But had the fight gone any longer than the first round, Franklin would have been in serious trouble as the former UFC middleweight champion had his left arm broken by a kick from Liddell early in the round.

"I was just happy the fight was over because I knew my arm was broken in the fight," Franklin stated. "The arm break was broken earlier in the round. It was one of the high kicks, I would say maybe two minutes in. After that kick came I was having a hard time getting off the ground and all that kind of stuff."

Going into the fight, Franklin planned to look for opportunities to counter Liddell when he came on strong. He found those opportunities after catching a couple of shots during the later part of the round.

"Chuck caught me with a couple punches, and I kind of got stupid standing in front of him," Franklin said. "It looked like he was making himself tired so I was just kind of letting him make himself tired. Putting a lot of energy into punches that weren't landing and then he caught me with a decent combination there, but nothing that really rocked me. He follows up big when he thinks he has your heart, and I just tried to stay tight, and then threw the lead hook and caught him on the chin. I definitely wasn't going to quit. I've broken bones before and continued fighting, but there was part of me that was wondering how. Like what kind of strategy I was going to use in the fight with a broken left arm in the second and third round."

The win, while huge for Franklin's title aspirations at light-heavyweight, was bittersweet as both men consider one other friends.

"It's kind of a bittersweet victory because Chuck and I are friends and I really like Chuck," Franklin said. "I went into his locker room after the fight to check on him, but he was with the doctors. I just spoke to John Hackleman for a few seconds. I don't want to be the guy labeled as the guy that put him out of the sport or whatever. I don't like the thought that."