Rich ‘Ace’ Franklin admits that he helped Wanderlei Silva and Vitor Belfort transition their way to the UFC middleweight division by fighting them at a catchweight. Franklin seems to be a bit upset with the way his ranking has dropped with his most recent fights, but plans to rest this cold winter season before making a strong return either in April or May of 2010.
From Rich Franklin:
“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 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.”
