Rich Franklin har inte stått inne i oktagonen sedan han slogs ut av Cung Le vid ”UFC on Fuel TV 6”, den 10 november 2012. Tidigare meddelade Franklin att han vill gå en match till inne i oktagonen innan han pensionerar sig, och det mötet får gärna vara mot Anderson Silva:
Rich har mött Silva två gånger tidigare i karriären, matcher som båda slutade i TKO/KO-förluster, men Franklin tror sig ändå kunna besegra Anderson. Här kan ni läsa vad Rich hade att säga, via ”Submission Radio”:
Would I fight Anderson a third time? Absolutely. Is it because I feel like I have some unfinished business? Not at all. It’s just, in my mind as a champion and to have the mentality of a champion, I 100-percent wholeheartedly believe that I can beat Anderson in a fight. Not just Anderson, but just anybody like that’s the mentality you have to have.
If somebody says ’Rich do you think you can beat Anderson Silva in a fight?’ Absolutely, yes. ’Rich do you think you could beat Jon Jones in a fight?’ Absolutely yes. Like, you have to answer ’yes’ to those questions and not just because it’s a formality, but because you believe that stuff, because you believe in yourself and if you don’t believe in yourself then you don’t have any business pursuing a title in a sport or something like that, you don’t have any business in the pursuit of being the best.
And so yeah I would take a fight with Anderson. It wouldn’t be for any reason like redemption of vengeance or retribution or any other kinda cool word that we’ve seen on a UFC poster before, but yeah I would fight him and I believe I could beat him and that’s just me with the champion’s mentality.
Franklin står dock inte utan alternativ inför sin sista match, då han nyligen utmanades av ingen mindre än Chael Sonnen.
