Franklin-Griffin Slated for UFC 127

Former UFC middleweight champion Rich Franklin will meet former light heavyweight titleholder Forrest Griffin at UFC 127 on Feb. 5 in Las Vegas.

A source close to the deal confirmed to Sherdog Tuesday that the rumored fight was true. The news was first reported by MMAFighting.com.

Franklin won the middleweight strap when he defeated Evan Tanner by fourth-round TKO at UFC 53 in 2005. Franklin, a former high school math teacher, defended his title three times before running into current champion Anderson Silva in 2006. “Ace” was battered by the Brazilian’s knees and fell in the first round. After his loss to Silva, Franklin started training under Matt Hume and rattled off back-to-back victories over Jason MacDonald and Yushin Okami before receiving another crack at Silva and a chance to regain his title at UFC 77. It was not to be for Franklin, however, as Silva again dominated the former champion, knocking him out early in round two. Since that time, Franklin has gone 4-2 in the UFC, losing only to former champions Dan Henderson and Vitor Belfort. The Cincinnati product’s last attempt in the Octagon resulted in a first-round knockout of Chuck Liddell at UFC 115 in June.

The inaugural winner of “The Ultimate Fighter” reality series, Griffin has gone from TV star to world champion in his time with the UFC. His official debut with the company was at the original Ultimate Fighter finale in 2005. Griffin defeated co-finalist Stephan Bonnar and proceeded to win back-to-back fights before losing a razor-thin split decision to former light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz at UFC 59. After submitting a heavily-favored Mauricio “Shogun” Rua at UFC 76, Griffin was given a shot at the light heavyweight title, then held by Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. Griffin used his reach and threw and onslaught of leg kicks against the champion, earning a hard-fought unanimous decision and lifting the title from “Rampage” at UFC 86. The new champion would lose the title in his first defense, however, as he was knocked out by “Sugar” Rashad Evans at UFC 92. Now training at Xtreme Couture, Griffin returned the favor to Ortiz in his most recent fight, defeating “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” by split decision and evening his record to 1-1 against Ortiz.

A middleweight title fight between Vitor Belfort and champion Anderson Silva is expected to join the Franklin/Griffin scrap at UFC 127.