Anderson Silva Returning in 2015

Former UFC Middleweight Champion, Anderson Silva, was last seen in action at UFC 168 in which he tried to recover the UFC title that he lost at UFC 162 to Chris Weidman.  During their clash, Anderson Silva broke his leg throwing a kick that was checked by Chris Weidman.  Since that moment Silva has been out of action trying to recover from his injury.  Silva quickly underwent surgery and has slowly been recovering and even sharing videos of him training on his various social media accounts.  This week, Anderson Silva's doctor in Brazil has cleared him to begin training and resuming his MMA career.  MMA H.E.A.T.'s Karyn Bryan sat down with Silva and asked him about his future in MMA.



Silva is expecting to return in 2015 and doesn't yet have an opponent in mind yet.  Many are buzzing about possibly seeing a bout that has seemed to elude the UFC fans for years--a fight between Silva and Michael Bisping.  I personally wouldn't mind seeing Silva go up to 205lb for a fourth time or possibly see him face Vitor Belfort or Rich Franklin in a rematch.  Franklin believes that he could defeat Silva if he got his hands on Silva for a third time.  Franklin has one last fight on his contract and I wouldn't be opposed to another round of Silva and Franklin.  If Penn can get a third shot at Edgar in a similar situation, why shouldn't we see Franklin try to redeem himself against the man who took his title?  Also a super fight with Georges St. Pierre has been buzzed about, but I'd rather see a clash with Franklin, Belfort or Bisping over a fight with GSP.  Who would you all like to see the Spider face?

Rich Franklin Where Are You?

As a huge Rich Franklin fan I would first like to start off by saying that i am a little frustrated by Rich Franklin's absence from MMA.  Rich Franklin last fought in November 2012 against Cung Le in Macao live on Fuel TV.  Rich Franklin was knocked out cold by the dynamic striker within the first 2:17m of the first round.  Since then we have not seen Rich Franklin in action.  Franklin is one of the most talented individuals to walk into the Octogon.  Rich Franklin is a former school teacher who taught himself martial arts through instructional videos before he became a professional fighter. He made his UFC debut back in 2003 against Evan Tanner at UFC 42 in April of that year.  He came out and scored a spectacular TKO win.  A little over two years later he would become the UFC Middleweight Champion by defeating Evan Tanner in their rematch at UFC 53.  Franklin lost the title to the great Anderson Silva back in 2006 at UFC 64 after two successful title defenses.  Rich Franklin has competed against some of the best athletes in the world while he was active in the sport such as Marvin Eastman, Lyoto Machida Jorge Rivera, Ken Shamrock, David Loiseau, Yushin Okami, Dan Henderson, Wanderlei Silva, Vitor Belfort, Chuck Liddell and Forest Griffin.

Whether you are a fan of Rich Franklin or not, you must appreciate Franklin's confidence to take on any man that the UFC has put in front of him.  Franklin never turned down a fight and even continued to fight with injuries in fights with David Loiseau and Chuck Liddell.  Franklin has stated within the last few months that he still has one more fight left on his UFC contract and he plans on completing his contract and taking that last fight.  Since stating his contract status, we haven't heard much out of Franklin.  If you don't follow Rich Franklin then you wouldn't know that Franklin has been busy with doing some work outside of the UFC.  Franklin has been working on studying nutrition and even opened up a successful juice bar in Beverly Hills.

Post by Rich Franklin.

In February, the UFC announced that they would be hosting a UFC Fight Night event in Cincinnati, OH and I was sure that within a few days an announcement would be made that Rich Franklin would be headlining that event for his final fight.    That announcement never came and instead it was announced that Erick Silva and Matt Brown have been named as the main event for the Fight Night event.  The longer he stays away from the cage the less likely that he will return.  I feel that there are many interesting match ups that could be made for Rich Franklin's last fight. I honestly would watch him fight anyone at Light Heavyweight or Middleweight.  Hopefully he keeps to his word and finishes the contract, but if he doesn't, it has been a pleasure to watch him compete for many years.

Kennedy to Meet Natal in November

After Lyoto Machida was removed from the UFC Fight for the Troops card to face mark Munoz in November, Tim Kennedy was left without an opponent.  Desperate to keep a fight in November and eager for a new opponent, Kennedy went to Twitter to call out some opponents to try to secure an opponent.  He call out Rich Franklin, Chris Camozzi, Wandelei Silva, Nick Diaz, Costa Philippou, Mauricio Rua and Rafael Natal.  Of all of the men that were called out, the one that came into fruition was Rafael Natal.

Rafael Natal is coming off of a three fight win streak coming off his fight of the night victory over Tor Treong in his last fight on Fox Sports 1in September.  Rafael Natal is  5-2-1 in the UFC and presents a real challenge for Kennedy in their bout in Kentucky. I think that this will be a pretty even fight in which both men will look to bring the fight to each other.

UFC Releases Okami

It was announced today that the UFC has released longtime Middleweight contender Yushin Okami.

Yushin Okami has been one of the most noteable faces in the UFC's Middleweight Division since his debut in 2006. He has faced both of the UFC's most decorated champions in the form of former champions Rich Franklin and Anderson Silva.  Yushin Okami has been in there with the best 185lbers and beaten the best in the process. He holds victories over some if the best guys in the division.

Okami is coming off of a tko loss to Ronaldo Jacare Souza at UFC Fight night 28. Tushing Okami leaves the organization as the #6 Middleweight in the UFC with a UFC record of 13-5. Yushin Okami was a part of the UFC's first event in Brazil in which he challeneged Anderson Silva for the UFC Middleweight title.