Cincinnati’s own, Rich ‘Ace’ Franklin, believes a third bout against, Anderson Silva, the man responsible for the end of his title reign, would have a different outcome than the previous two bouts.

“Would I fight Anderson a third time? Absolutely. Is it because I feel like I have some unfinished business? Not at all. It’s just, in my mind as a champion and to have the mentality of a champion I 100% wholeheartedly believe that I can beat Anderson in a fight.”

The former UFC middleweight champion explained the motivation behind such a cold statement and what he thinks on the future of Anderson Silva:

“It (a Silva rematch) wouldn’t be for any reason like redemption of vengeance or retribution or any other kinda cool word that we’ve seen on a UFC poster before, but yeah I would fight him and I believe I could beat him.”

“Now, I have a plate in my hand much like Anderson has a rod in his leg and I know how difficult that is. Fortunately, I’m hitting things direct, straight impact where Anderson is moving his leg like a ball bat, so I really don’t understand how he’s gonna be able to kick with that leg in the future, because it’s his left, it’s his rear leg, it’s his kicking leg. So I don’t know how he’s going to be able to move forward that way with that leg.”

“We’ll see what Anderson does on the backend of his career but I’d look for him to return and I’d look for him to hunt for the title again at some point in time. We’ll just see if he can get there.”

– All quotes come via Submission Radio.