UFC 147 – Rich Franklin reveals why he’s not a fan of fighting in his hometown
Former UFC middleweight champion, Rich Franklin has been revealing some of the pitfalls of fighting in your hometown ahead of travelling to Brazil to take on fan favourite, Wanderlei Silva at UFC 147 this Saturday night, explaining the amount of local press amps up the pressure on those involved.
Speaking via MMAWeekly.com, Franklin said:
“I personally don’t like it. Some people do well with it and others don’t. There is a lot of pressure. I know when I was fighting Anderson (Silva) here in the hometown, I actually left. Me and my team here in Cincinnati went to Wyoming, and my coaching staff was with me. Rob Radford, Neal Rowe, Matt Hume, I was working with at the time he came, Jorge Gurgel was there, Mike Ferguson, my strength and conditioning coach, and then I had a dozen training partners. We all picked up and went to Wyoming just to get out of the city.”
“There was so much media. I’m doing all this media right now for the Wanderlei fight and this is all national and international media, but the local media that I’ve had to do hasn’t been too burdening at this point in time. But when you’re fighting in your hometown, the amount of local media that you have to do on top of all the other requirements you have, it’s very demanding.”
Franklin’s bout with Wanderlei at UFC 147 will mark a number of milestones for the former champion who hasn’t been seen at middleweight since his 2008 win over Travis Lutter. He also has taken over a year off due to shoulder surgery, with his last fight coming at UFC 126 where he lost a unanimous decision to Forrest Griffin.
By Michael Pepper. (Follow me on Twitter)
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