Liddell primed to KO Franklin in UFC 115

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Hall of Famer Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell may have reached the age of 40 but he claims that he is in tiptop shape.

Liddell said this ahead of UFC 115: Liddell vs Franklin, which pits him against Rich “Ace” Franklin.

“I’m ready for this fight, I’m in the best shape of my life... I’ll tell you how this is gonna end, I’m knocking Rich out,” Liddell told UFC.com.

The former UFC champions will exchange blows at the General Motors Place in the City of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on Saturday (Sunday in Manila).

Liddell, a former light heavyweight titleholder, has 21 wins and 7 losses while Franklin, a former middleweight champ, has 27 victories, 5 defeats and 1 no contest (NC).

When asked to comment about his UFC 115 foe, Franklin uttered: “One word comes to mind when people think of Chuck Liddell... Legend!”

Both main event headliners are coming off losses in their last UFC bouts.

Liddell was defeated by Mauricio Rua by technical knockout in UFC 97: Redemption and Rashad Evans via KO in UFC 88: Breakthrough. He last won in 2007 at UFC 79: Nemesis over Wanderlei Silva by unanimous decision.

The 35-year-old Franklin, meantime, was knocked out by Vitor Belfort in UFC 103. He earlier won over Silva via unanimous decision in UFC 99.

Fight card shake-up

Mirko Cro Cop (26-7-2, 1 NC) will also see action in Canada against Pat “HD” Barry (5-1-0).

Paulo Thiago (13-1-0) will take on Martin “The Hitman” Kampmann (16-3-0) while Ben Rothwell (30-7-0) will face Gilbert “The Hurricane” Yvel (36-14-1, 1 NC).

Other matches included in the UFC 115 fight card are Carlos “Natural Born Killer” Condit (24-5-0) vs Rory “The Water Boy” MacDonald (10-0), Tyson Griffin (14-2) vs Evan Dunham (10), and Mac Danzig (20-7-1) vs Matt “Handsome” Wiman (11-5).

The other fights are David “The Crow” Loiseau (18-9) vs Mario Miranda (11-1), James “Lightning” Wilks (7-3) vs Peter Sobotta (8-2), Ricardo “Golden Boy” Funch (7-1) vs Claude “The Prince” Patrick (11-1), and Mike “Quicksand” Pyle (18-7-1) vs Jesse “The Ox” Lennox (15-2).

The fight card had a shake-up in April when one of the main event headliners was replaced because things did not play out the way they were supposed to.

Liddell was slated to face Tito “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” Ortiz.

***

For more UFC action, tune in to Balls on SkyCable Channel 34 or logon to http://ballschannel.multiply.com. Balls Channel is available on SkyCable Platinum, SkyCable Gold, SkyCable Silver and other quality cable operators nationwide.