Rich Franklin Talks About His Limbo Status After Taking Catchweight Bouts

From an interview with the National Post:

"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," he says. "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," says the 35-year-old. "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," he says. And then, as if recognizing the cliché he’s just offered, he adds, "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."

 I'm definitely not a fan of the catchweight bouts, and this is the major reason for me.  It makes it difficult to assess where fighters should be in the respective set weight divisions.  Franklin has often stated that he doesn't see himself fighting for much longer.  So it's interesting to see him say he wants to work his way toward a title shot as a light heavyweight.  Since he doesn't want to fight until April or so.  I say give him Luiz Cane, who's coming off a loss to Antonio Rogerio Nogueira at UFC 106.  It's a fight that Cane wanted a few months ago.

Photo: Glenn Dextras