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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
"I’m a businessman and this is my job. It’s all about the next fight, getting in the cage. It doesn’t matter who they put in there with me... I took the Belfort fight because Dana called and asked me, even though I wasn’t quite where I needed to be physically or mentally. Now, I’m not making excuses, that’s just the nature of the fight game. But now I’m taking some time off and probably won’t fight again until April or May. I need to rest and relax and recover a little bit and I also hate prepping for a fight in the wintertime. Cincinnati can get pretty cold and I hate running and working out when the temperature is always zero... The UFC asked me to fight the catchweight fights to help Silva and Belfort make the drop down to 185 pounds. But now I’ve lost my ranking at 185 and 205. It’s crazy — I can headline a card and not be top-10 ranked... I just want to fight the top fighters in whatever division I’m in. Even if I put together a couple of wins at 195 I’m not sure that helps me at 205 in terms of getting big fights. I need to get in there and mix it up with the light heavyweights so I can work my way toward a title shot."
-Rich Franklin talks to the National Post about taking some time off between fights following his back to back catchweight bouts and more.
Penick's Analysis: Franklin does need to find a division to stick with, but he is ever the company man and has taken a few fights in a row with the UFC in need of a higher profile fight. Now it's time for the former Middleweight Champion to take aim at the light heavyweight division and see how he can make out against that deep division. He's still going to be a name that the UFC can sell events on, maybe not at the headliner level for a few fights, but for the co-headliner spot for sure.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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