Briefly with Rich Franklin

By Elias Cepeda

Recently former UFC middleweight champion Rich Franklin sat in on a tele-conference to talk with reporters about his upcoming bout with Jason MacDonald at UFC 68 on March 3rd. Here’s what Franklin had to say about coming back from his injuries, fighting in Ohio and what he thinks of MacDonald.

On how eager he was to get back into action after losing to Anderson Silva in October, and if fighting in his home state of Ohio was added incentive to do so.
“Anytime you come off of a loss you are eager to come back. It’s that competitive side to you that wants to show that you can come back strong. I gave my nose plenty of time to heal of course. Ohio will be great. Most people that are coming to the fight would have been watching the fight on pay per view anyway though.”

On his mental status before the Silva fight and how it’s changed since.
“I just think I had a lot of factors in my life built up that affected that fight. I had to take a step back and look at not just what my training was like but my life in general.”

On supposedly predicting that he would knock out MacDonald in the first round.
“Well let me set the record straight. The interviewer in the video asked me ‘in a perfect world’ how I would see this fight going. I said that in a perfect world I’d go in, get a knock out in the first round and get to go back to my family. I’ve never been the type in the past to make a prediction on a first round knock out or anything.”

On Jason MacDonald.
“I think Jason said it best in that he’s not being a stepping stone. I’m looking for myself to have a tough fight. He doesn’t have the (nick) name ‘The Athlete’ for nothing. He’s always in great condition.”

(Source)