In October 2006, Anderson Silva had one UFC fight to his name, a 49-second knockout win over Chris Leben. That fight took place in front of 954 fans at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The bout served as the co-main event of UFC Fight Night 5.
That victory, with a bit of help from the 21 fights Silva had outside the UFC, convinced the promotion that he was ready to fight for the UFC middleweight title. On October 14, 2006, Silva stepped into the octagon at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas to face middleweight champ Rich Franklin. What the announced crowd of 10,173 saw that night was something special.
As Bruce Buffer announced the fighters, it was clear that Franklin was the fan favorite. That pre-fight pop did little to help the champ once referee John McCarthy signaled the start of the fight.
The bout started slow. Thirty seconds into the fight, McCarthy was urging the competitors to get to it. The next minute saw the two fighters exchange mostly kicks. With little more than 90 seconds ticked off the clock, Silva locked on a muay Thai clinch and just unloaded many knees to the body of Franklin. The champion had no defense for those blows. When he dropped his arms to protect his body, Silva moved up high and landed knees to the head.
With 2:12 left in the first stanza, Silva landed a big knee to Franklin’s head that staggered the champion. With space between the two fighters, Silva switched back to a kicking attack, landing a high kick to Franklin’s head. That strike backed Franklin into the cage where another knee to the head dropped the champion to his back on the mat. With Franklin helpless on the mat, McCarthy waved off the fight at the 2:59 mark of Round 1.
Silva landed a whopping 86 percent of his significant strikes during the brief fight, missing on only five of the 36 strikes he attempted.
Silva would hold onto the 185-pound crown until Chris Weidman knocked him out in July 2013. During Silva’s title reign, which remains the longest in UFC history, he defended the crown 10 times.
Silva faces Israel Adesanya in the co-main event of tonight’s UFC 234 fight card, which takes place at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia. Before that fight takes place, relive Silva’s win over Franklin right here.
