| UFC 72: Rich Franklin vs. Yushin Okami |
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| Written by Robert Johnson | |||||||
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Tuesday, 12 June 2007
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 The Northern Ireland will be the host of UFC 72. The fight between Rich Franklin vs. Yushin Okami will be broadcast live from The Odyssey in Belfast, Northern Ireland on June 16, 2007. This will be the third time the UFC has hosted a show in Europe, with their previous two European excursions being UFC 70 at the MEN Arena in Manchester earlier this year and UFC 38 at the Royal Albert Hall in London in 2002. The main fighting event for UFC 72 was going to be former Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight champion Rich Franklin versus Martin Kampmann, but Kampmann was forced to withdraw due to a knee injury. Taking Kampmann's place in the bout will be Japanese MMA fighter Yushin Okami. Even without Kampmann on board this should be a great fight, as Rich Franklin vs. Yushin Okami will make a great match as both guys are strong, hard-hitting fighters. Franklin last entered the octagon in March in UFC 68 versus Jason MacDonald. That was his first fight since losing the UFC Middleweight title to Anderson Silva in October. Franklin began the climb toward regaining his title by beating MacDonald in two rounds. Franklin sized up MacDonald with some quick shots in the opening round, but didn't take full control of the fight until Round 2. In the second round Franklin peppered Macdonald with a number of good shots before getting him to the ground. Okami's last fight was against Mike Swick in April at UFC 69. The fight went the distance and Okami was declared the winner by a unanimous decision, with the judges scoring the fight 29-28, 29-28 and 30-27 in Okami's favor. Okami packs immense strength and is a great ground-and-pound fighter, much like Franklin. If either fighter can get their opponent on the ground in Ireland, this fight could be over quick. Both fighters have also won by submission in the past and if this fight doesn't end by flying fists, one of the fighters will likely end up submitting.                        |
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| Last Updated ( Wednesday, 13 June 2007 ) | |||||||