Via MMA Weekly

On fighting Vitor at 195 lbs:

"Fighting at 195, it wasn’t my idea for this fight," said Franklin. "It was just something that Vitor requested. At this point in time I’m not in the title hunt at 205, perhaps I will be at some point in time as long as I keep winning fights. Until then, if the UFC has exciting fights for me at 195 pounds... then I’m willing to drop."

"I think that Vitor still poses a threat the way he did several years ago with his speed and his explosiveness of his hands and all that kind of stuff," said Franklin. "That’s obviously something I want to be looking out for, but more recently he’s become a much more well rounded MMA fighter. Obviously he’s going to pose much more of a challenging fight because if I find myself in a little bit of trouble on my feet, it won’t be as easy to just take him down and stuff like that.

"What it boils down to come the 19th is I have to execute my game plan. If I do what I know I’m capable of doing then I’ll do fine. But if I let Vitor unfold his game plan the way that he wants to and impose his will in the fight then that’s where I’m going to run into trouble."

On the prospect of another title run and fighting at 205:

"These are gonna be tough match-ups just for the simple fact that I’m not a big 205-pound fighter," said Franklin. "A lot of these guys are taller than me, wider than me, longer than me, I’m gonna deal with weight issues, strength issues probably. So a lot of the match-ups at 205 are gonna be tough on me."

"If I continue doing the things I need to do and winning fights and stuff like that, eventually I’ll make my way back to a title run," he said. "If I can get back to a title run, that’d be a great Cinderella story for me before I retire. If not, between now and then, if I’m putting on great fights for the fans then I’m happy doing that."