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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
In somewhat surprising but not all that surprising news, Rich Franklin will head to Fuel TV this November, as he'll take on Cung Le in the main event of UFC on Fuel 6 in Macau, the special administrative region of China.
UFC President Dana White revealed the booking following the post-fight press conference for UFC on Fox 4 on Saturday night, with several reporters relaying the message via Twitter.
The fight was originally scheduled to take place on the UFC 148 card last month, but Franklin moved up his return a couple of weeks to take on Wanderlei Silva at UFC 147 in June when Vitor Belfort suffered an injury. With his win over Silva and Le defeating Patrick Cote at UFC 148, the UFC wanted to re-book the fight for Macau, and they've gotten their way.
The event takes place on Nov. 10 in Macau, airing live in the U.S. on Fuel TV. It marks the UFC's debut in that region of Asia.
Penick's Analysis: The surprising thing about this fight is that Franklin has only fought on free TV one time in the UFC, and it was on the original Ultimate Fighter Finale. He's always been on pay-per-view, and now he's going from headlining a pay-per-view to headlining on Fuel TV, and that's a move that just doesn't make sense. The Le fight also doesn't do a ton for him in his quest to get another Middleweight Championship fight, but he remains a company man and this is the fight they wanted to book.
[Rich Franklin art by Cory Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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