Travis Lutter on UFC 83 Fight with Rich Franklin

Travis Lutter nearly beat Rich Franklin ... nearly. (MMAweekly.com Photo)

After winning the fourth season of The Ultimate Fighter, middleweight Travis Lutter (9-5) had a run of bad luck, losing to champion Anderson Silva (21-4) and then suffering an injury in training which prevented him from fighting again.

On Saturday, April 19 in Montreal, Canada, Lutter's run of bad luck continued at UFC 83: Serra vs. St. Pierre 2. Facing former champion Rich "Ace" Franklin (23-3), the jiu-jitsu expert scored the takedown and the mount position on his opponent, but when the moment to finish the fight came, Lutter missed his chance by allowing Franklin to escape from a seemingly tight armlock submission hold.

"I was probably a half-inch, maybe even a quarter-inch, from breaking Rich Franklin’s arm," he tells fightticker.com. "If we played that fight again I think I’ve got a real good shot at beating him. How close was I to getting my arm raised in both those fights? Sometimes luck is ”¦ and I’m not saying that Rich got lucky. I don’t want people sending me hate mail saying I was saying Rich got lucky. I’m just saying I got unlucky."

According to "The Serial Killer", part of his unluckiness came from a punch that Franklin landed early in the fight.

"I got caught with that punch really early and I was hurt," he explains. "I don’t think people really understand. I got hurt real early. I don’t really remember anything from that point ”˜til I was passing his guard. I remember passing the guard, getting the mount. I knew I was hurt. I didn’t feel good physically. I just wanted to get in and get out of there right away."

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