Former champion Rich Franklin looks to return to win column in UFC

By: NEIL DAVIDSON

(CP) - Rich Franklin is tired of answering questions.

But when you are a marquee mixed martial arts fighter, it's hard to escape them these days. Especially coming off a brutal loss in which Brazilian hard man Anderson Silva ripped away your UFC middleweight belt and repositioned your nose in the process. From 185-pound world champion to victim in two minutes 59 seconds.

It's a hard image to kick. It's like being the most intoxicated guest at an office Christmas party. It can take a while for talk to die down. Sometimes you have to wait until someone else has one too many at the next function before you move on from being the topic du jour.

And then sometimes the talk never stops.

Franklin, 32, knows the savage loss to Silva may always be with him.

"Those questions, they'll always be there," he said in an interview. "I think the people are always going to ask. No matter what, it won't go away. At least that's what I'm expecting. If it does great, but if not then I'm fully prepared for that. It doesn't matter really."

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