LUTTER'S GAME PLAN IS SIMPLE FOR FRANKLIN

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Posted by saemskin

I think Rich's weakness is on the ground. We dont see him there very much at all and when we do, ala` Yushin Okami, he nearly gets subbed. He was a camels hair away from losing that fight.

So my summary is this:

Lutter must take Rich down to have any chance at winning this fight. If he is going to do it, he'll have to do it early because Lutter's conditioning is nowhere near Rich's. I don't think too many have his cardio and Lutter has proven time and again his conditioning is rather questionable for a top 5 middleweight.

Rich must keep the fight standing, and with his strength I think he has a good opportunity to keep the fight there. He is much larger than travis in terms of musculature. If he successfully defends Lutter's take downs early on, and Lutter avoids getting knocked out, Rich will go on to a decision win via his superior standup, superior to Travis that is. I'll say that if Rich doesn't knock Lutter out in the first couple minutes of the first round, he's not going to.

I'm picking Lutter via 2nd round sub simply because I think he's younger, hungrier, and Rich is still gun shy from getting his ass handed to him twice by Silva. I really think that had a huge impact on his mind. He was the top dog by a large margin, the exact same way Anderson is now. I mean, prior to Silva's stomp through the ranks, who could challenge Rich Franklin in a serious way? Okami is the only one to even locate a chink in his armor. I dont think it's because Rich is a world class striker at all either. His training regimen is what is superior in his game.

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