Rich Franklin Favored To Smoke Vitor Belfor At UFC 103

Sports Betting News - September 15th, 2009 - Written by Scott

UFC makes it's way to Texas this Saturday night and will feature a main event fight between Rich Franklin and Vitor Belfor at the American Airlines Center in Dallas in UFC 103.  This main event does not carry the high profile names that you would expect, but it should be a great fight featuring two exciting fighters.  This will be UFC's second straight event that features no champioship fights.

Franklin comes into the fight with a 27-7-1 record.  This well conditioned fighter will use his excellent striking skills against Belfor and hopes to keep the fight off of his feet where he has been known to get in trouble.  In his last fifteen fights, Franklin boasts a record of 12-3 and is coming off a victory against  Wanderlei Silva in a unanimous decision.  He will look to use his overall well rounded skills against a less experienced Belfor.  Franklin hopes to pick up a few wins and eventually make his way to a title fight.

Belfor, a Brazilian mixed martial artist, has unbelievable hand speed and will use this to his advantage against the more experienced Franklin.  The 6'0" 180 pound former UFC light heavyweight champion has a record of 18-8 coming into the fight, his first in the Octogon since 2005.  His speed has always been his advantage but as of late, he has become more of a well rounded fighter.   Belfor is coming in with four straight wins and looks to make Franklin his latest victim in his first UFC fight in almost five years.  Belfor also brings to the match his new found love of Shotokan Karate.

“I trained karate in 2001 to fight Heath Herring,” said Belfort.  “People have a lot of respect for boxing and wrestling, but I’ve always had the vision of bringing things that are not being used in the sport, like I did with boxing. After that, I contacted Lyoto. We trained together a couple of times in Rio de Janeiro, and I felt his timing was from karate, so I started to get interested in karate again. Of course, I made some adaptations, as I combined karate with my boxing game. I’m adding a couple of nice things from Shotokan to my game.”

Bodog has the odds listed in this UFC main event.  Rich Franklin is at -145 and Vitor Belfor at +145.  Even though this fight is not for a title, look for an action packed event between these two great fighters.

To discuss this and other Sports Betting stories like it, be sure to check out our new forum at:
https://www.usaplayers.com/forums/