http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/09/18/ultimate.fighting.championship/index.html

MMA Stomping Grounds: Why the move up to 205?Rich Franklin: I was talking to the UFC after the second [Anderson] Silva loss and they encouraged me to move up to 205. They told me my position there would be more appealing to them from a business perspective. They weren’t interested in a third match between me and Silva and they didn’t want me fighting contenders because I could eliminate possible title fights, so I was stuck in that I was going to be fighting people on the back end of their losses to Silva and I didn’t care for that gatekeeper position. After the Travis Lutter fight, I said I would try my hand at 205 again.

MMA Stomping Grounds: What’s the toughest part of the transition in weight classes?

Rich Franklin: I think that’s a question better suited for September 7, but me giving up some pounds there is quite the adjustment. If I’m carrying an extra 20 pounds in this fight and it goes the full 15 minutes, that takes a toll on conditioning.

MMA Stomping Grounds: What do you think about Matt Hamill?

Rich Franklin: He’s looked great, his success doesn’t surprise me at all. Matt’s an accomplished wrestler and a competitor. The first time I met him it was before he was doing MMA and I said when you’re done wrestling and all that — he was making run for Athens games — you ought to give MMA a thought because you could be good at it … and before I knew it he was in The Ultimate Fighter and his only loss is a controversial one. He’s looked strong.

MMA Stomping Grounds: What would be your ideal fight?

Rich Franklin: I don’t know, it doesn’t really matter to me, I’m really just all about competing and having fun, doing it and putting on good fights for the fans. I’m one of those guys where if fans said “we’d love to see Rich Franklin fight so and so” I’d be in to doing that.

MMA Stomping Grounds: What part of the sport’s growth has you the most excited?

Rich Franklin: I would guess the international growth at this point. The international growth the UFC is experiencing is showing how solid the future is going to be for this sport. So that’s great for guys like myself, who 10 years from now, I won’t be fighting anymore and having a job within the MMA profession will be a possibility, but it’s also exciting for up-and-coming athletes.

MMA Stomping Grounds: What do you think is the biggest misconception casual sports fans have about MMA?

Rich Franklin: It’s that there are no rules. It’s the funniest thing I hear people talk about. People say, “I’ve seen that you fight in cage and there’s no rules,” and I’m sitting there [thinking] “yeah, exactly.” Quite frankly, the rule book for this sport is complex, more so than for most sports probably.

MMA Stomping Grounds: What is one thing you would want people to know about you?

Rich Franklin: I just think that people see the TV persona that’s developed and although I’m a lot like my TV persona, things get amplified and magnified so to speak, and all that stuff gets taken out of proportion. One aspect of your life seems to overwhelm public perception and they forget about other things. From what they read in newspapers they think they know you, but what it boils down to is they don’t.

MMA Stomping Grounds: Have you ever had any weird requests from fans?

Rich Franklin: Yeah, requests like “can you shave your autograph into my back hair” or stuff like that, it’s really not that bad though. I don’t get, like, women’s panties in the mail or weird fan mail or anything. I have had threatening phone calls to my house on numerous occasions. People call to threaten to kill me or beat me up when I’m not looking. My wife has also had threatening phone calls, which is odd because I’m a fairly well-liked fighter, so its weird. It’s weird having that kind of stuff happen because I come from a normal small town here in Ohio and suddenly my life is blown up and I’m perceived to be way more important than I am.

MMA Stomping Grounds: Do people call you a lot like that?

Rich Franklin: It’s kind of out of the blue, it will be three or four in the morning. I had a string of these calls occur over a couple months where they came semi-frequently. Then when I was out of town my wife was getting them. I had a fan who one time did some research and got my home number and called my house. My wife picked up and he said “This is Bob, I’m calling Rich about an interview,” and she said, “OK, who are you with?” He just said, “Oh, with no one, I just wanted to interview him.”

MMA Stomping Grounds: Do you have to contact the authorities when you get calls like that or do you just shrug them off?

Rich Franklin: At this point I’ve shrugged them off. It irritates me more than anything else. I don’t know, I guess being a fighter you feel you can take care of yourself anyway, but it’s never gotten to a point where I feel the need to call the police.

MMA Stomping Grounds: Looking on the upside of your fame, what are some of the cooler experiences you’ve been able to have during your time as a fighter?

Rich Franklin:That’s the thing with fame — there’s the good side and the bad side. The bad side is when you’re out in public you get recognized, I couldn’t go to a club down here in Cincinnati without expecting to take 100 pictures with people on phones so they can put that crap on MySpace. I understand that goes on when I go out. The cool side of it is I’ve been able to do a lot of things most people haven’t. I got to go visit the troops in Iraq in 2006 and I’m getting ready to go back to the Middle East again. I’ve done tons of cool stuff around the military, like going on aircraft carriers and on a basic level I get invited to nice restaurants and people pay for dinner occasionally. You rarely have to wait in line for clubs and stuff like that. As you’re sitting there signing autographs in a club and by time you hit the 50th picture it’s like “at least we didn’t have to wait in line for this place.” Your friends think its more cool than [I do] but it has some perks.

MMA Stomping Grounds: Does the fame ever feel surreal to you?

Rich Franklin: No, as far as I’m concerned, fame is a fickle thing. One minute people love you, the next they hate you. You always have loyal fans that think you’re the greatest thing since sliced bread, but really, 99 percent of my life I’m just your average guy. I’m sitting at my home today wondering if I’m going to have to cut my grass before the fight again. I’m not wanting to have to sit on my tractor for a couple hours in the sun doing it but that’s my typical life. It’s pretty normal and things will be more that way once I’m out of limelight and retire. For most part people will forget about you. I sign autographs not because it does anything for my ego but because the people that ask you for it wouldn’t understand if you didn’t sign it, and I want fans to have a good experience when they meet me.

MMA Stomping Grounds: What’s the toughest part about being Rich Franklin?

Rich Franklin: Juggling all the aspects of my life. So many people want your time. Once you gain some notoriety or perceived importance everyone wants or needs you. You have appearances for this charity or sign autographs for this or make appearances at this fight. I need to go visit the troops and I need to train and I need to do PR work for my fights but on top of everything else I need to make time for everything else — family, friends and training and its difficult to juggle all of that.

MMA Stomping Grounds: Do you follow MMA much when you aren’t training/fighting?

Rich Franklin:Yes and no. I watch the bigger fights but there’s so much stuff. MMA has exploded so much that you could sit down and you got your Versus channel and your HDnet and the UFC and the WEC and all these other shows and acronyms. If you DVR’d everything on MMA on TV you could watch fights nonstop in your waking hours. I spend so much time in the gym training that sometimes the last thing I want to do is come home and watch more fights. I do watch some fights and anytime there’s a WEC and Jens Pulver or one of my friends fighting I’ll catch the show, but I’m always definitely making sure I pay attention to UFC events and major fights. Honestly, my wife probably keeps up with that way more than I do.

MMA Stomping Grounds: What do you like to do away from fighting?

Rich Franklin: Well, when I’m training, I’m an athlete and an athletic kind of guy so I like to do anything active, but I don’t have the energy when I’m training. I will do things like play my drums, practice my Portuguese. I do often times spend a lot of time reading my bible and stuff like that.

MMA Stomping Grounds: Finally, what do you need to do against Hamill to be successful?

Rich Franklin: I think I gotta be quick on my feet. I’m giving up some weight so he might be giving up some speed. I need to use my footwork to confuse him and stick and move and stick and move and avoid takedowns. Once he does take me down, I can’t let him lay on top of me. I need to stay active on the ground.

From Inside MMA: Total Strikes Attempted by Matt=74. Total by Rich=162. Strikes landed by Matt=22 (30%). Strikes by Rich=71 (44%). Power Strikes landed by Matt=8. Power Strikes by Rich =36. Leg Strikes landed by Matt=5. Leg Strikes landed by Rich=31.

Rich won in the 3rd round with a left kick to the liver sending Hamill to the canvas. The referee stopped the fight at the 39 second mark. Franklin improves to 26-3. Check out the picture group!!

Rich Franklin and American Fighter help out the great kids at Camp Rainbow Gold. This is a camp for kids with cancer and is a wonderful cause and organization. We worked with actress Tiffani Thiessen Smith on providing American Fighter shirts to these true heroes and true American Fighters! Thanks Tiffani for letting us be a part of it. Check out www.tiffanithiessen.com and www.camprainbowgold.com.

Check out the picture of the troops wearing American Fighter gear and read the Franklin Equation where Rich thanks the troops. The link to the Franklin Equation archive is above.

Rich joined other celebrities at the Wendy’s Celebrity Cook Off to benefit the Dave Thomas adoption foundation. Joined by NFL players and television stars such as Kimberly Young, Rich cooked at the Japanese steakhouse Benihana. Rich sold his apron and autographed memorabilia and was humbled and shocked that his apron sold for more than anyone else’s that evening. The event raised over $100,000 for the charity.

Sign up to receive emails from Rich by clicking the “Go” button on the bottom right hand corner of the home page and entering your email address. Click the other links in that same corner to read examples of the Franklin Equation, Hit and Run and the Fan Equation.

Rich wanted to be sure that we posted his “Franklin Equation 4″ because it contains many important thanks. If you want to get the “Franklin Equation” you can sign up on richfranklin.com or americanfighter.com by simply entering your email. Rich writes:
Many of you know I spent 4 of the past 8 weeks in Seattle, preparing for Travis Lutter. Before leaving Cincinnati, many of my coaches and teammates put a tremendous amount of time into my training. You can view the pictures of Paul, Waylon and Khetag helping me prepare if you go to my website at www.richfranklin.com.

Those pictures do not reflect the amount of time Neal Rowe and Mike Ferguson also put into my fight preparation.

Thank you also to Rob Radford, Matt Hume and Joe Jamieson for the amount of effort channeled into getting me ready, after I arrived in Seattle. Matt plotted a schedule from Day 1 through Fight Day. The fight ended up unfolding exactly as he said it would. Thank you to AMC for the hospitality and amazing training environment provided to me.

A special thanks to Brad, Karos and Mario for the daily training and drilling, drilling, drilling. These 3 men in particular were completely unselfish with their time and talents.

Fans often ask me what I think about as I walk towards the octagon and enter. I never really have a good answer. However, this time, in Montreal, I particularly remember what I was thinking. I approached the octagon and acknowledged my wife, Beth. I then automatically looked for my father, who often sat nearby in the front row. But, of course, he wasn’t there. During my Seattle training, I was largely able to keep my mind off my father’s recent passing.

While my corner men removed my shirt and warm-ups, and Stitch put Vaseline on my face, the emptiness created by my dad’s death made it difficult for me to focus on my task at hand. Although the training phase helped to keep my mind off of him prior to the fight - it’s those involuntary thoughts that catch you off guard.

I hugged my corner men a little tighter than usual.

Keep Striving, Rich Franklin

Rich is sending out a new weekly email to anyone who signs up on richfranklin.com or americanfighter.com to receive his thoughts about training, fighting and the mma world in general. Here is the first one so you can get an idea…
COPING WITH FEAR

I’m often asked questions about FEAR – whether I experience it, how often, when – that kind of thing. These are good questions – I never get tired of talking about this with fight fans.

There are lots of things I fear in life – and not just a savage strike coming my way at 100 mph. Of course I fear the same things everyone else does – a life-altering diagnosis, the drunk driver crossing into my lane, the phone call telling me someone I really care about has died.

But it is true that when it comes to the octagon, fear is part of the process. Failure to manage this powerful emotion gives your opponent a huge advantage just for showing up.

Just before my fight career had started, I was in an amatuer boxing contest in Cincinnati. My opponent had nearly a 40 pound weight advantage and was 3 inches taller than me. I was nervous and the crowd seemed to anticipate my doom.

In the end, the referee stopped the fight in the 3rd round, and raised my hand in victory. This experience helped teach me to keep my fear in check and make it work for me as an energizing force.

Being brave isn’t about not being scared. It’s about doing your best in spite of it.

Keep striving,

Rich Franklin

For the past few weeks, I’ve been training with Matt Hume here in Seattle, getting ready for Travis Lutter. Our UFC fight will be in Montreal on Saturday, April 19th.

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