UFC Fights

Round one. Both fighters look calm. The crowd is going nuts for Franklin. Straight away there is a nervous exchange of punches. Okami is a lot bigger looking than Franklin, even taller looking despite only his 1 inch height advantage. Okami tries the head kick and Franklin remains in his calm, fixated state. Okami hits home with a nice right and Franklin punches to the body. Okami kicks to the leg and follows up with left punch. Franklin takes a knee from Okami but it’s slow and Okami’s looking slightly better than Franklin even thought there hasn’t been a lot of action. They clinch against the Octagon and Franklin gets some knees through and Okami replies with the same. Big John pulls them apart and then Franklin hits Okami with a big leg kick. Franklin follows up with some good leg kicks against the lanky Okami. Good leg kicks but the fight is noticeably slow and the crowd aren’t too appreciative of that. End of round one.

Round two. Okami makes a nice right and Franklin replies with a leg kick. Franklin hits home with a good left and trades with Okami’s right punch only for Franklin to follow up with a right punch and kick to the head. He then hits Okami with more leg kicks only for Okami to counter with his own, this is close but Franklin’s getting more shots in. With his back to the fence Okami goes for the takedown and Franklin pushes his into the cage fence. From the clinch they are trading knees and Big John separates them again.

Franklin works the leg kicks some more only for Okami to blast him with a big right, Franklin looks dazed but recovers and hits the body of Okami. Okami then kicks to the head of Franklin followed up by a nice right hook. Franklin’s combo return is nice and then kicks to Okami’s head followed by a big left. Franklin’s still leading the fight as the round ends.

Round three. Okami leaps with a flying knee but misses but then lands a right punch that is countered with Franklin’s repetitive but effective leg kick. Franklin hits with a nice body shot then a body kick then locks up with Okami in a clinch. Okami takes Franklin down and is workign from the half guard, dropping down some punches. Okami makes it into full mount and Franklin can’t get out. Okami gets some elbows in from up top and Franklin manages to scramble only for Okami to get the guillotine. Franklin breaks free and gets on top but doesn’t seem able to. Perhaps he’s getting tired from trying to scramble free.

Franklin drops Okami and gets the Kimura in pretty solid but Franklin somehow manages to escape and get on top and get a nice elbow shot in. Then the bell rings and it’s all over, close but I’m giving it to Franklin. Okami did well in the third but Franklin controlled the fight in the first two and came out on top.

The result comes in and it’s just and right - Rich Franklin wins by unanimous decision.

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(8 votes, average: 4.5 out of 5)