BELFAST, Northern Ireland – Rich Franklin will get a chance to reclaim his UFC middleweight championship sometime later this year thanks to his victory Saturday over Yushin Okami.

Franklin won a unanimous decision in a dull fight to set up a bout against the winner of the July 7 title fight between Anderson Silva and challenger Nate Marquardt.

Franklin survived a kimura and a good choke in the third round. He said kimura wasn’t cinched tight, but conceded the choke had an impact and nearly forced him to submit.

“I probably sounded like I was gurgling mouthwash,” Franklin said.

Okami’s reputed strength advantage never materialized. Franklin had heard from Kalib Starnes and Mike Swick, Okami’s previous two opponents, about how strong Okami is, and said he was prepared for the possibility that Okami would be the stronger of the two.

He said he never noticed it, however.

“He didn’t seem as strong as Kalib and Swick had said,” Franklin said. “I didn’t feel overwhelmed.”

GRIFFIN APOLOGIZES

UFC 72: Forrest Griffin scored a unanimous decision over Hector Ramirez in Saturday's light heavyweight bout. (Photo courtesy UFC.com)

BELFAST, Northern Ireland – They sang soccer chants and schoolyard songs. They roared until their lungs were hoarse. They surrounded every arena exit and hotel entrance, hoping to get a glimpse of their heroes.

Rich Franklin and Forrest Griffin were the winners in the Octagon, but the biggest winner in UFC 72 at Odyssey Arena was the sport of mixed martial arts.

MMA proved on Saturday that it is not simply an American phenomenon or a casino driven sport. A sellout crowd of 7,850, which paid an arena record live gate of about $1.2 million U.S., spent about four hours singing, screaming and proving that MMA is a serious player on the world sporting scene.

UFC owner Lorenzo Fertitta said officials overpriced the tickets, which had a top price of $500 U.S., but it didn’t matter. The fans were out in force – long lines snaked around the arena more than

UFC 72: Rich Franklin battles Yushin Okami on Saturday. (Photo courtesy UFC.com)

BELFAST, Northern Ireland – Rich Franklin hardly put on a dominant performance on Saturday, but what he gave was enough to earn him another shot at the UFC's middleweight championship.

Franklin survived a late submission attempt from Yushin Okami and went on to score a unanimous decision in UFC 72 before a sellout crowd of 7,850 at Odyssey Arena. All three judges had it 29-28, or two rounds to one, for Franklin.

Franklin will fight the winner of the July 7 title match in Sacramento, Calif., between Anderson Silva and Nate Marquardt for the belt later this year.

It was, though, hardly a spectacular performance and it left many in the crowd booing throughout. After a card filled with drama and high-energy bouts, the main event was a major letdown.

But Franklin, now 24-2, didn’t mind. All he wanted was the win, and he nearly didn’t get it when Okami slapped on a kimura late in the round.

“It was pretty

BELFAST, Northern Ireland – It's hard for anyone in this town to not be aware that the UFC has arrived. There are billboards, posters and advertisements everywhere for UFC 72, which will be held Saturday at Odyssey Arena.

Those arriving by air are greeted by a large billboard featuring the faces of main event fighters Rich Franklin and Yushin Okami, as well as Forrest Griffin. Smaller ads promoting the bout adorn the baggage carousels.

But the UFC hasn't been as warmly embraced by the fans in Northern Ireland as it has been at its recent shows in England and in the U.S.

Though there are plenty of fans wearing UFC merchandise in evidence around town, the crowd at the weigh-in Friday was decidedly smaller than average.

UFC weigh-ins have become an event unto themselves, drawing as many as 5,000 fans. But the crowd at the Odyssey Arena for the UFC 72 weigh-in was no more than 1,500 and was hardly the over-the-top enthusiastic gatherings that greeted the fighters at events in Las Vegas,

BELFAST, Northern Ireland – Rory Singer's travel arrangements were different than those of most of the fighters who are competing in UFC 72 on Saturday at Odyssey Arena.

Most of the fighters stressed about the travel time from the U.S., calculated the impact it would have on their training and nutritional schedules and made elaborate plans to minimize the impact of jet lag.

Singer, though, intentionally made his travel time longer. And, he says, he loved it.

"Awesome. Absolutely awesome," he said of a decision to fly into Dublin, Ireland, instead of directly to Belfast.

Once he reached Dublin, he took a two-hour train ride to Belfast, where he was able to enjoy the scenery.

"The countryside was gorgeous and getting to see that was worth the trip in and of itself," said Singer, a middleweight with title aspirations who will face Jason MacDonald in a three-round bout Saturday on the pay-per-view card.

Singer holds a degree from the University of Georgia in biological engineering and was

BELFAST, Northern Ireland — Rich Franklin has been one of the UFC’s most dominant fighters, but needs a win Saturday over Yushin Okami at Odyssey Arena to get another shot at middleweight champion Anderson Silva. Here’s what he’ll need to do to get it and here’s how Okami can pull the upset:

BELFAST, Northern Ireland – Colin Robinson is big and thick and has the grizzled look of a longshoreman.

He's not the kind of guy who's likely to make an appearance on "Dancing with the Stars." Light on the feet, he's not. He's thunder without the lightning.

Or, precisely, he's the type of fighter who amateur boxing is prejudiced against, with its computerized scoring system that relies more on quick, flicking punches rather than powerful, concussion-inducing shots.

It was that prejudice that ended what Robinson calls his love affair with boxing.

"I became pretty disillusioned with it, to be honest with you, with the scoring and all," Robinson said. "There were too many rules and regulations, with the (required) headgear and all, to suit me."

He shoved aside any thought of winning an Irish heavyweight title and prepared to move on with his life. And then, as a 34-year-old, he discovered mixed martial arts and, he says, his life was changed.

And it will continue to change Saturday when

BELFAST, Northern Ireland – When Rich Franklin got in from a workout Thursday, he had a meal he prepared for himself consisting of ground chicken, ground turkey, broccoli and dry oatmeal.

When he left a news conference later in the day, he ate a concoction of ground chicken, ground turkey, broccoli and dry oatmeal. For dinner, he had ground chicken, ground turkey, broccoli and dry oatmeal.

He had the same thing on June 3 and May 26 and, he says, chuckling, six times a day for every day of his training camp.

It's part of what the ex-UFC middleweight champion calls a scientific approach to nutrition and cutting weight.

Franklin, who fights Yushin Okami in a three-round bout at UFC 72 Saturday at the Odyssey Arena with a shot at middleweight champion Anderson Silva on the line, leaves little to chance in his pre-fight preparations.

A one-time high school math teacher who has a Bachelor's degree in mathematics and a Master's degree in education from the University of Cincinnati, Franklin