Octagon fans treated to bruising decision

Tuesday, March 7, 2006 | 11:27 a.m.

According to the rules of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, competitors wear gloves that weigh from 4 to 6 ounces and are "designed to protect the hand but not large enough to improve the striking surface or weight of the punch."

It's a fine idea, in theory.

But those gloves couldn't protect the dangerous fists of Ultimate Fighting middleweight champion Rich Franklin in his victory by five-round unanimous decision against Canadian challenger David Loiseau in the main event of Saturday night's card at Mandalay Bay.

Franklin, administering such a brutal beating to his opponent that he broke his own left hand in the second round, won by scores of 50-42, 50-42 and 50-43 on the judges' scorecards to retain his title in front of a crowd of 10,362 at the 11,000-seat Events Center.

"It's the first fight I've ever had where it had to go to a decision," said Franklin of Cincinnati (22-1 in mixed martial arts). "So I'm very displeased with myself."

Franklin, who first won the middleweight title by battering Evan Tanner on the way to a fourth-round stoppage last June in Atlantic City, said the broken hand prompted him to adjust his strategy by necessity - "but I knew I had to keep throwing punches the whole fight," he said.

A wrestling specialist, Franklin used multiple takedowns to wear Loiseau down and countered his opponent's attack with repeated stinging shots that left Loiseau's face bloodied and swollen, particularly around the eyes, by the end of the fight.

Loiseau of Montreal fell to 14-5 in mixed martial arts competition. He elicited jeers from the crowd in the early rounds by jogging away from Franklin as he advanced - a move reminiscent of Andre the Giant's old wrestling opponents who would panic and step out of the ring between the ropes when they saw Andre coming after them.

By the later rounds, though, Loiseau had shown his toughness by refusing to quit despite the visible damage to his face and body.

"I knew Dave was a very dangerous fighter," Franklin, a minus-250 betting favorite, said.

Saturday's card, billed as "USA vs. Canada," featured two middleweight fights whose winners likely have designs on Franklin's 185-pound title. Nathan Marquardt (26-6-1) of Lander, Wyo., won a three-round unanimous decision against Canadian Joe Doerksen (32-9); and Mike Swick (9-1) of Houston used a guillotine choke to stop Quebec's Steve Vigneault (11-6) by first-round tapout.

In a competitive welterweight bout, Georges St. Pierre outlasted BJ Penn to win a three-round split decision - a victory St. Pierre hopes will secure him a title shot against champion Matt Hughes, who watched from octagon-side.

Hughes, scheduled to fight Royce Gracie on a May 27 card in Los Angeles, acknowledged a showdown against St. Pierre "has crossed my mind."

"My fight comes up May 27 ... I'm not going to worry about Georges until after that," Hughes said.

St. Pierre (12-1) overcame some vision trouble to hold off Penn (11-3-1), of Hilo, Hawaii.

"I got poked in the eye," St. Pierre, of Montreal, said. "I saw two BJ Penns ... He's one of the best fighters in the world, pound-for-pound. Now I think I'll get a title show."

The Ultimate Fighting's next event, "UFC 59: Reality Check," is scheduled for April 15 at Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim, Calif., with Andrei Arlovski meeting Tim Sylvia for the organization's heavyweight championship in the main event. Light heavyweights Tito Ortiz and Forrest Griffin clash in another featured fight. The card is sold out.