by Michael DiSanto

InsideFighting: Hows life after UFC 44? How are you feeling?
Rich Franklin: I feel pretty good. Ive spent some time this week hitting the ice and the stimulation machine on my groin. You know, they kept talking about how I hurt my groin how I pulled it pretty badly. Ive taken this entire week off from training. Everyone whos ever hurt their groin before keeps telling me how it just one of those injuries that takes time to heal, so I took this week off and Ill hit the gym on Monday to see if I can train. If not, Ill take another week off and continue with the ice and the stim machine. Other than that, its been pretty relaxing.

IF: How exactly did you hurt your groin?
RF: I was training. I wasnt doing anything special. I was drilling some single and double leg takedowns. I hit a double leg on my training partner Josh and when I turned the corner on it I heard it pop. I mean, it hurt, but it didnt hurt so badly that I couldnt continue. But the next thing I know, like 3 or 4 shots later I had to walk off the mat.

IF: Ouch. That totally sucks.
RF: Yeah, it does.

IF: Now that youve been on two big UFC pay per views, has anything changed in your life back in Cincinnati?
RF: Not at home yet. Here in Cincinnati, Im not sure how popular the UFC is outside of the guys that know me at the gyms and stuff. The guys at the gym know me and train with me and they are really excited that Im fighting in the UFC. But as far as the general public, I dont know how popular the UFC is in Cincinnati. I know everybody that I hang out with watches it. I dont get recognized at home a lot. But I was actually surprised when I was out in Vegas that even before I fought there were people that recognized me already. Its picking up a little bit. Its happened to me a little bit [being recognized]. It happened at the airport a few times too, but life hasnt really changed too much.

IF: I know that between UFC 43 and 44 you fought in one of the smaller promotions. Do you plan to continue taking fights outside the UFC, taking into account that fighters have been dropped after losing matches in smaller promotions?
RF: Honestly, Monte [Cox] is my manager, and hes a very smart manager. What ever he tells me to do, I basically listen to him. Ive listened to him since the first day he started managing me. Really, Ive developed a relationship with him where if he says I think you should take this fight or I dont think you should take this fight or you need to go fight for these people I basically do what he says because hes always given good advice. If he wants me to fight outside the UFC and hes confident that Ill win the fight, then Ill do it. But if not, then I wont. I think hes really trying to build me within the organization [UFC] right now.

IF: Is your groin injury going to prevent you from fighting at UFC 45? I know Dana was interested in having you fight again as you and I talked about at the UFC after party. Is it safe to say you wont be fighting at UFC 45?
RF: Its pretty safe to say I wont be fighting at UFC 45. Once again, I need to wait until Monday when I go back into the gym to see how my groin is feeling. Its my understanding that the card is almost full now, and Dana knew that I hurt my groin pretty badly. At this point, I think hes basically taken me out of the running, so I think its pretty safe to say that I probably wont be fighting in November. And theyll probably put me on their January or February card whenever they have their next show.

IF: We spoke to Randy Couture on Wednesday night to get his thoughts on what hes going to do next. He said that if he could have his way that he would have you fight Vitor Befort next to determine the number 1 contender spot. How do you feel about that?
RF: Theres been a lot of talk about that. At one point, I was assuming that is how things were going to unfold. But it seems that even if I fought Vitor and won that I wouldnt get a title shot next. Im sure that theres going to be some hype on a Tito-Couture rematch. The way I would see things shaping up is even if I fought Belfort that the UFC would have Tito and Chuck fight because the fans have wanted to see that fight for a while now anyway. And then the winner of those two fights would fight to see who gets a shot at Randy for the title kind of like a bracket system. Theyve had light heavyweight title shots at two shows in a row Randys fought twice in a row so Im sure theyre not in a rush to put the 205-pound title back in the ring again. They could probably go a show or two without anything on the light heavyweight title.

IF: So lets talk about Belfort for a minute. How do you see yourself matching up with a guy like Vitor whos a great striker and a black belt in Brazilian jiu jitsu? How does your game match up with his?
RF: You know, hes a great athlete and Im a good fighter. I would be willing to take the fight. Honestly, of the four top people that I could fight there, he would be the person who I would least want to fight only because hes a very explosive fighter and I tend to come off with slow starts. And that first explosive flurry from Belfort could be devastating for the fight, but I think that once I make it past the first flurry with him that I would be fine you know, it would be a great fight. Actually, I think it would be a great fight either way.

IF: Would you want to keep that fight standing or would you be comfortable going to the ground with Vitor Belfort?
RF: Really, I dont know. Id like to test my hands with someone like Vitor Belfort. But the way that he fights, Ive never seen him on the ground before anyway. I know that hes good [on the ground] and his jiu jitsu skills might be a lot better than mine, but I dont know that because I havent seen a lot of him on the ground in the UFC. Quite honestly, I dont know what I would do. I would just go in there and work my game. I like to stand up, but if the fight went to the ground, Id work my ground game. And if the fight stayed standing, Id continue working my standup.

IF: When you fought Edwin DeWees at UFC 44, the fight went to the ground momentarily. From my perspective, it seemed like your focus was to stand back up as quickly as possible. Was that the case did you prefer to keep it standing or what were your thoughts when the fight went to the ground?
RF: Well, when we fight somebody we would develop a game plan if someone like Vitor Belfort was definitely on the plate. But when we fight someone like DeWees I sit down with some of my teammates, and we look at some tapes to see what hes good at. Whatever hes good at we basically just dont do. And we knew that DeWees best attributes were his groundwork, so the best thing for me to do was just stay off the ground because I knew that he didnt have the same hand skill as me. Thus, obviously Im going to continue working my hands. When we hit the ground, I was comfortable. We landed in the half guard and I was comfortable enough to check the time on the Jumbo Tron. I tried working my full guard and fly guard and tried for a reversal, but he flipped his leg, so I slipped out and was able to stand back up. I was calm the whole time and I was working the whole time. I didnt have any problems being on the ground, but that wasnt what our game plan called for, so the intention was to get back on my feet and obviously capitalize on what I think Im better at than him.

IF: Lets talk about the other fighters in the Final Four seeking to get a title shot Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell. How do you match up with those two fighters?
RF: As far as how I match up, I dont mind how I match up with any of those four fighters [Ortiz, Liddell, Belfort and Couture]. Its just that if I sit down and watch the tapes of any of them, the one that would concern me the most is Belfort because of the way he comes out with that initial explosion the same way that he did with Marvin Eastman - whereas, if you look at my fights, Im characteristically a slow starter. Im slow out of the gates. In 44 with DeWees, until he tried to sink that guillotine choke, it wasnt until then that I really got up and started working my hands and started slamming some knees into him and stuff like that. Now, with a fighter like Belfort, if I started out slowly, that could be something that could end the fight for me, which wouldnt be good. Now, with someone like Chuck, hes got great hands and I might not be able to out strike him, but I would fight him. He is more methodical and picks his spots, which is more like the way that I do things, so it seems to me that I would stand a better chance against someone like that than I would against someone who comes out explosive because if I get caught with that first explosion it could end the fight.

IF: What about Tito?
RF: Titos the same way. You know, every fighter at this level is really good, so it doesnt matter which of the four I fight. The fight with any of those four could go either way. Theyre all great fighters, so I cant sit here and say, for example, Id rather fight Tito because Titos easier. Thats just my feeling on how I feel about those fights when I look at those four fighters.

IF: I guess what I meant with my Tito question is how comfortable are you fighting a dominant grappler like a Tito Ortiz or Randy Couture? When I look back at your record, Marvin Eastman is probably one of the better grapplers that youve fought and you arm-barred him, so how do you feel fighting a fight when you know the fight will go to the ground?
RF: I dont mind fighting on the ground at all. The only reason that I prefer standing up isthe reason that I preferred standing for two reasons in my previous fights: 1) the crowd enjoys it and 2) the guys that I fought, I know that I had better hands then them. So why not keep the fight standing up because Ill end up a crowd pleaser. It doesnt matter who I fight really because I feel like I have just as good of hands as anyone in my weight class in the business. So no matter who I fight my game plan will more than likely always be to come out throwing hands until something goes awry and then Ill try to take it to the ground if necessary or until they take me to the ground. And once it goes to the ground, if Ive been out-striking my opponent, Im always going to try to stand back up because the crowd likes that stuff. But if I wasnt out-striking my opponent and the fight goes to the ground, Im completely comfortable. Im just as comfortable fighting on the ground as I am standing. It really makes no difference to me where the fight takes place.

IF: When youre training your hands in Cincinnati, do you ever spar with local heavyweight boxers like Dale Crowe?
RF: Oh yeah. In fact, I just got off the phone with Dale about 10 minutes ago.

IF: So how do you stack up with him? Dale is about 230 pounds, and I call him the gatekeeper the heavyweight division. In other words, you must beat Dale Crowe in order to be a top heavyweight contender.
RF: Yeah, I know what youre saying. I match up well with him in the gym. Were good training partners for each other. I come in and there are days when he has a good day and he makes me look silly, and then there are days where its my day and I make him look silly, but I work real well with him in the gym. Hes a real good training partner for me. Hes also a southpaw, but hes a lot bigger than me, so that makes him more difficult for me to deal with. Im a true 205 pounder I carry myself somewhere around 210. Im not a very heavy person. Dale, obviously, is a lot bigger than me, so those are the factors that I have to deal with when Im in the ring with him because Im giving up 10 or sometimes 15 pounds.

IF: Do you guys ever fight a little more full contact during your sparring?
RF: No. Actually, he just talked to me today about wanting to learn some ground skills, so I invited him up to train with us to learn some jiu-jitsu. But when I go to the boxing school and Im training my boxing with my coach Rob Radford is my coach and hes also the guy who trains Dale when I go to the boxing school, I strictly work boxing. Rob will also bring other boxers in. He brought in Ravea Springs to work with me a little bit for my last fight, and hes got a couple guys in the house that are really good, so I have a variety of boxers to work with when Im there, so its strictly boxing.

IF: Do you have any plans to fight in Pride FC in the future?
RF: A fighter of my stature right now cant really say, Oh, Im fighting in Pride because I know theyll have me. If Marty can line something like that up, I certainly dont mind going to Pride to fight. One thing that Marty told me is that mixed martial arts is a business and I need to treat it like a business because this is how I pay my bills. So when I accept fights, everything is based on what is going to help me pay my bills, am I going to have a multi-fight deal, or will the UFC, for example, have me back for future shows or just use me for just one fight stuff like that. You have to look toward the future. If Pride would have me in their show, I would fight out there and it would be great. But if theyre only interested in having me in one show and that would step on the UFCs toes, for example, and I wouldnt be able to fight for the UFC anymore you know, if they to the point where they would say were not going to have Rich back because he fought one fight for Pride then I wouldnt step on toes or anything like that. But yeah, Im willing to fight for any organization out there.

IF: Do you have any preference towards a cage or a ring?
RF: No. Not really. It makes no difference to me either way. I think people develop preferences when theyre in a cage for example, if youre in a cage and you find yourself in a bad situation, you might say I dont like fighting in a cage because this happened to me so fighting in the cage is crap or something like that. But Ive never really had myself in a bad situation where one or the other hindered me. I like the cage just because the ring ropes create the chance of falling out of the ring and in the cage there are no re-starts [due to falling out or being under the ropes]. But then again if Im fighting in a ring and Im getting pounded it would be nice to get re-started in the center of the ring and have a chance to regroup. They both have advantages and disadvantages, and whichever one I fight in is fine with me.

IF: Ok, last couple of questions. First, if you could fight anyone past or present in MMA, who would it be and why?
RF: Um? Well? I dont know. I really dont do the whole ESPN Dream Bowl where you put the 1986 49ers versus 78 Steelers, you know. [We both laugh]. It doesnt matter.

IF: Fair enough. How about this: if you were perfectly healthy and could fight anyone tomorrow, who would it be?
RF: You know what, actually. Not that Im calling him out or anything like that (dont edit this in a funny way), but Id be interested in fighting Royce Gracie just because he fought in the first UFC and beat everybody. And now that the athletes are more hybrid now than they were back then and have adapted to the sport more, Id just like to see how the evolution stacks up against how the original athletes were, so that would be nice. You know, anyone like Ken Shamrock from the first couple of UFCs obviously, hes evolved as a fighter too but I just wonder how the evolved fighters of today would compare against the top fighters from the first few UFCs.

IF: In closing, is there anything that youd like to say to your ever-growing fan base?
RF: Thank you for the support and please watch me in the upcoming UFCs. I promise that Im always looking for a knockout in order to be a crowd pleaser. Thats what I do in the ring. Im still here in my house and dont really read any of the Internet hoopla, so I dont know what kind of a fan following that I have at this point. [We both laugh.] I do my thing and when I get asked for the occasional interview, I always give it. [We both laugh again.]

IF: Well, Rich, I certainly thank you for your time.
RF: No problem.

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