With the constant reminder from MMA, boxing, the NFL and other sports about head trauma and longevity in sports taking center stage in 2013, I’m happy to bid Rich Franklin adieu. Rich, you, like GSP, have nothing to prove. For a while there, you were considered the best middleweight until Anderson showed up, but now it’s time to go.
I was never the biggest Rich Franklin fan. He was fine to watch fight, but he was too small for 205 after a while and he couldn’t make 185 without looking like a skeleton. Franklinweight fights against Wanderlei were fun, but Rich is right – it’s time to hang up the gloves.
This is what he said on AXS TV:
“You know, I lost my last fight, and that really kind of solidified my decision to make this my last fight coming up. I know that took me out of title contention and so for me to get back into the title hunt would be a couple years’ worth of work and I know that. I’m 39, I’ll be 40 next year and it’s getting to the point where it’s late in my life and it’s really too late to have that title run so I started questioning, what am I really fighting for, if I can’t make it to the title anymore? I know I’m not in title contention anymore and I realize that so, that’s how it is.”
