Sherdog’s Top 10: Brutal Beatdowns

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4. Anderson Silva vs. Rich Franklin
Oct. 14, 2006 | Oct. 20, 2007
Future great Silva entered the UFC as a relative unknown despite his extensive record and obvious skills, and his utter destruction of Chris Leben in his debut propelled him into an immediate title shot against champion Franklin. “Ace” entered their first meeting at UFC 64 as a 2-to-1 favorite and actually started strong for the first 90 seconds.

The champion landed a few solid low kicks and had a little success landing punches, but everything changed once Silva secured the double-collar tie. Knee after knee after knee -- a total of 17 landed -- crashed into Franklin’s midsection, turning it the color of a ripe tomato, before he dropped his hands to cover his damaged body. Silva then changed targets and blasted the champion in the face. A couple of high kicks and another knee later, the fight was over. Franklin looked like he had no idea what had transpired, and Silva’s historic title reign began.

A year later, Franklin had worked his way back into contention with wins over Jason MacDonald and Yushin Okami, while Silva beat Travis Lutter and Nate Marquardt in the interim. The Brazilian was the 2-to-1 favorite in their rematch at UFC 177, and once again, he would show that to be an overly optimistic number for his opponent.

For the first three and a half minutes, Franklin did fairly well. He ate a few knees but broke the clinch when Silva got there, landed a few glancing blows in the punching exchanges and managed to get the champion to the ground. With 1:40 left in the first round, however, the momentum totally shifted when Silva stung Franklin with a hard flurry against the fence and a flush knee to the solar plexus. While the challenger landed a crisp left, Silva finished the round with a clean flying knee, strikes from the double-collar tie and a right hand that dropped “Ace.” Trainer Matt Hume had to carry a barely conscious Franklin back to the corner.

Franklin somehow recovered and did well for the first 50 seconds of the ensuing round, but once Silva ducked into the clinch, it was essentially over. A hard knee to the head buckled Franklin, and the champion followed with a vicious flurry of kicks, knees and punches that put him down for good.

Number 3 » Silva vs. Sakuraba