Le stops fancied Franklin in UFC

MACAU – Cung Le pulled off a first round knockout victory over former middleweight champion Rich “Ace” Franklin in the UFC on Fuel showdown at the CotaiArena of The Venetian here Saturday in a shock win that augured well for the Vietnamese-American’s bid for a crack at the middleweight crown.

The triumph was stunning as it was spectacular as Le gifted China and the rest of the Asian mixed martial arts fans with a victory to remember by stopping the fancied Franklin in just two minutes and 17 seconds of the opening round to improve his record to 9-2 (win-loss).

Franklin, a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, fell to his seventh defeat against 29 victories and one no contest.

“It’s the biggest fight of my life,” said the 40-year-old Le, a native of Saigon who trains in San Jose, California and lives in nearby Hong Kong where he has a flourishing movie career.

None, not even the MMA experts, expected Le to defeat the 38-year-old Franklin, a three-time champion, much more beat the American in such devastating fashion to the surprise of some but to the delight of many Asians who rooted for the Viet-Am fighter.

“It was just a lucky punch,” said Le, whose slew of movies include “Tekken” and “Bodyguards and Assassins” among others.

The win is expected to boost Le’s name in a long queue of potential challengers to reigning middleweight king Anderson “The Spider” Silva, the best pound-for-pound fighter in the MMA today.

Le’s win was quickest in the fight card and just only one of the two bouts that didn’t go the distance with Thiago Silva scoring the other stoppage by dealing Bulgarian Stanislav Nedkov his first setback in 13 fights after the latter tapped out due to an arm triangle with only 1.45 minutes left in the third and final round.