#9 Cung Le vs Rich Franklin
Trending
At first glance, this fight didn’t really quicken the pulse – two former champions, with unassailable legacies but whose stars were fading. But a closer look would be more telling – Cung Le was a legend in the realms of sport karate and sanshou; the 37-year-old Franklin had recently shared the stage with Wanderlei Silva and Chuck Liddell and scripted edge-of-the-seat wins.
Both men were known for walking into the storm without batting an eyelid, so the more intuitive of the MMA faithful had their bets on a full-blown barnburner. But like amateur treasure hunters who go sniffing for arrowheads but stumble upon treasure, fans couldn’t believe their luck.
Get the latest updates on One Championship Rankings at Sportskeeda and more
The fight begun predictably, with both fighters’ antennae pricked, feinting and studying each others’ reactions. A little into the third minute, Franklin looked to bait Le with a leg kick. Not only did the former Strikeforce Middleweight Champion bite, he put Franklin under with a ferocious right hook.
That clinical shot earned Le the Knockout of the Year for 2012. This bout would prove to be Franklin’s last; he took a 3-year hiatus from fighting, during which he was appointed VP of ONE FC. In 2015, Franklin announced his retirement in a column for The Players’ Tribune.
