Former UFC middleweight champion Rich Franklin (24-4 MMA, 11-3 UFC) and former PRIDE title-holder Wanderlei Silva (32-9-1 MMA, 2-4 UFC) have agreed to meet at UFC 99, an event that takes place June 13 at the Lanxess Arena in Cologne, Germany.
A source close to one of the competitors told MMAjunkie.com (
www.mmajunkie.com) the fight has been agreed upon, but not signed, and both competitors are open to doing it at a catch-weight between 185 and 205 pounds.
The source also said the Franklin-Silva fight is expected to take the night's co-main event slot, possibly under a headline bout between UFC lightweight champion B.J. Penn and top contender Kenny Florian.
Silva signed with the UFC in 2007 after a long and successful run in PRIDE. Returning to the UFC for the first time since a UFC 25 loss to Tito Ortiz in 2000, Silva faced Chuck Liddell at UFC 79 in late 2007. He suffered a unanimous-decision loss, but Silva rebounded for a dominating 36-second knockout of Keith Jardine five months later.
Silva most recently fought at UFC 92 in December, where he suffered a first-round knockout loss to Quinton Jackson.
After the fight, Silva said he was planning to drop to the middleweight division, a weight class Franklin recently left.
Franklin returns to competition for the first time since a UFC 93 main-event loss to Dan Henderson. Henderson won a split decision (29-28, 27-30, 29-28) over Franklin, who was competing for the second time since he moved from middleweight to light heavyweight last year. The move came after two losses to current 185-pound champ Anderson Silva.
Franklin suffered a deep eye poke in the final minute of the Henderson fight and was diagnosed with a severely scratched cornea. As we reported last week, he underwent surgery to remove scar tissue that had accumulated near the injured area of his right eye and near the area where the eyelid meets the cheek.
He's expected to be fully healed well in time for the June event.
UFC 99 marks the UFC's first-ever trip to Germany.
While the UFC has yet to announce the event or any match-ups for the fight card, MMAjunkie.com first reported earlier this week that UFC lightweight Spencer Fisher (22-4 MMA, 7-3 UFC) has agreed to meet Caol Uno (27-11-4 MMA, 3-3-1 UFC), who returns to the UFC for the first time in nearly nine years, at the June event.
Marcus Davis is also expected to be part of UFC 99. But despite reports putting Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic on the card, the Croatian fighter is still in negotiations with multiple organizations, including the UFC.
