Rich Franklin was king of the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s middleweight mountain before arachnophobia gripped the weight class with the arrival of a certain Brazilian muay Thai machine.
A former math teacher at Oak Hills High School in Bridgetown, Ohio, Franklin started his mixed martial arts career in 1999, went 22-1 with one no contest in his first 24 outings and rose to the top of the 185-pound division. He captured the middleweight crown with a fourth-round stoppage of Evan Tanner at UFC 53 and retained it in subsequent appearances against Nate Quarry and David Loiseau before two blowout losses to the great Anderson Silva ended his run at the top.