Rich Fanklin has been inducted into the UFC ‘Hall of Fame’. The former middleweight champion officially retired in 2015 and is now a vice president at ONE Championship.
Franklin is the presenter of the ONE Warrior Series, a weekly YouTube documentary and a senior executive at ONE Championship. But he made his name as one of the UFC’s biggest stars, capturing the middleweight title in 2005.
The official induction will take place on July 6th and Franklin is proud to have received this recognition,
“This induction is less of my doing and more of the culmination of the many hours each coach, training partner and my manager spent with me. So often people talk about the sacrifices an athlete has to make to succeed, but my friends and family sacrificed far more for my career. Few people in this world live out a childhood dream and turn a hobby into a career, let alone end with Hall of Fame recognition, and God has blessed me with both. I am humbled by the support of my fans over the years and those particularly persistent on this induction,” Franklin said.
UFC president Dana White hailed the contribution of a man who fought 20 times in the octagon,
“Rich Franklin is one of the original, big stars of UFC, from when we first bought the company. Rich helped us take the sport of mixed martial arts to another level and put UFC on the map during the early days. Rich has always been a class act. He’s a guy who would fight anyone and do whatever it took to help grow the sport of MMA. He is a true legend and I’m honored to call him my friend.”
Franklin retired with a record of 29-7-0-1. He won 14 of his 20 UFC fights and beat the likes of Ken Shamrock, Chuck Liddell and Wanderlei Silva.
The 44 year old made his promotional at UFC 42 in 2003. Competing in the light heavyweight division, he stopped Evan Tanner with strikes in the opening round.
His career came to a conclusion at UFC on Fuel TV 6 in 2013, the promotion’s first ever event on Chinese territory. Franklin was stopped by Cung Le in the first round of a middleweight match and subsequently retired from the sport.
ONE Warrior Series 5 is set for Singapore on April 25th.
