Lauzon, Franca Likely To Clash at UFC Fight Night 17
Another bout has been added to the rumored lineup for UFC Fight Night 17 on February 7th at The Pearl in Las Vegas as “The Ultimate Fighter 5″ semi-finalist Joe Lauzon takes on former lightweight challenger Hermes Franca.
MMAMania.com first reported the potential lightweight main card bout yesterday.
After defeating former UFC lightweight champion Jens Pulver in his UFC debut, Lauzon appeared on The Ultimate Fighter, advancing to the semi-finals before being ousted by eventual runner-up Manny Gamburyan. After submitting Brandon Melendez on the show’s finale, Lauzon moved to Hawaii to train full time with BJ Penn. Following a first-round submission of Jason Reinhardt, Lauzon was TKO’d by Kenny Florian in mid-2008 but bounced back with a second-round TKO of Kyle Bradley at UFC Fight Night 15 in September.
After four-straight UFC victories and eight-straight overall Franca challenged then lightweight champion Sean Sherk for the 155-pound title, but was defeated by unanimous decision. Following the fight, Franca tested positive steroids and was suspended from competition for one year. After losing to Frankie Edgar in a “Fight of the Night” at UFC Fight Night 14 in July, Franca rebounded to top Marcus Aurelio via unanimous decision at UFC 90 in October.
Also slated for UFC Fight Night 17 is Mac Danzig vs. Josh Neer and Amir Sadollah vs. Nick Catone.
For the latest UFC Fight Night 17 rumors check out the MMAFrenzy.com UFC rumors section.
Nice
hope lauzon wins don’t like what franca has been doing
yeah im a big fan of lauzon i remember when he beat up jens then went on to tuf were jens was a coach, would of been priceless if jens had picked him, knowing the guy ur trying to make a better fighter kicked ur ass, hope joe gets the win in this fight, i think he got thrown into the deep end with kenny, but i bet he’s learnt alot about himself from that fight, this could go either way but im guna say joe via tko in the 2nd
Agreed johnboy, I like Joe a lot. Him and his brother seem to have pretty good attitudes. I like Joe’s fight style.
Hermes, I used to like but I have real issues with cheaters. Still a great fighter. I don’t think he’ll be in a position to fight for the title again but, he’ll be a good gate keeper. He should be happy with that after cheating.
I’ll be pulling for Joe.
has joe got a brother fighting mma???
His name is Jess I believe
Franca has mad some rather questionable personal moves over his carrer, he is highly talented but the funny thing is that they (sherk and franca) tested positive after their title match, which sucks because it was a rather good fight and then o ya both were juicing kinda takes the wind out of it…..
Joe’s brother is Dan.
I will be pulling for Joe, not a big Franca fan, I pulled for him against Sherk, but with the doping thing, I can’t pull for either of them now.
Damnit thx Justin
Dan is fighting Horedecki at the Day of Reckoning card.
I like this fight should be interesting Joe is getting better every fight he’s had. I think he was paired with Florian too early but this is a better match up. Should be a good card!
No problem, FR. I remembered his name because he was the youngest person to fight in the UFC.
If I’m not mistaken Dan trains out of Denver. Or at least used to.
good fight!
hope joe comes out with the win…
i don’t like franca!
i would take joe in this fight too…. i like joe and really dispise cheaters too but hermes is a good fighter
I like creepy joe a lot. Dude always brings it. I would love to say that joe wins this fight, but franca takes this one by GNP or sub in the second. Franca’s chin is good and he is very strong.
lauzon’s one of my favorite fighters. to be honest, i think he had kenny in the first round, which says alot. i’d really like to see franca lose cuz he just seems like he’s goin the route of karo parysian. a one time contender who’s just continually looking worse in and out of the cage. hopefully a win puts lauzon back in the spotlight cuz i really feel like that loss to kenny took alot of momentum away from him which is odd. a loss to someone like that isn’t something to be ashamed of imo.
You’re right its not like Werdum getting knocked out by dos Santos, not to take anything away from the young brazilian but Lauzon wasn’t I guess suppose to win v KenFlo he should have gotten more respect for the fight that he put up against the “better fighter”, the kid has talent
joe also proved he can rebound from a huge loss and that is something every mma fighter needs
I like the prospect of this fight, two great stand up guys , both well rounded and exciting. I think Franca has a bit too much for Joe in the end but who knows where Hermes head is at, i think he is on thin ice with the UFC.
i dont really understand why everyone is hating on the guys that aredoing steriods! i know its not right but in thee other hand what does it do it makes you bigger and stronger ya but it also makes you slower cause ur bigger and it gives you a bad temper which could and most likely cause you to get pissed off and make a mistake! tell me if i am wrong but against a good fighter and someone thats all roided out i would give it to the other fighter?
Great fight! This has potential to be the main event, IMO. Hard one to call, but I think Lauzon has this one; Franca has an edge in experience and has some unorthodox standup, but Lauzon is extremely well rounded, has ample time to prepare, and trains with the best. There is a ton of tape out there on Franca, and Lauzon should have no trouble bringing in guys to mimic his fighting style.
@ shane
Please tell me you’re not serious. As most know with my posts, being psarcasmical doesn’t always come across well in writing these posts.
If you seriously don’t understand and need this explained, there are a few that I’m sure would take pleasure in responding.
Go joe. I like to see him kick ass.Its going to be good to see joe back on top.