“Ace” talks about The Ultimate Fighter
By Curtis Clontz on Jan 08, 2009
If you are not a fan of Rich Franklin or do not subscribe to The Franklin Equation, you are missing out. Recently I did a group of articles discussing why I thought Rich Franklin and Dan Henderson should be the coach of the nest season of The Ultimate Fighter. As I scanned my email after a long day at work, I seen the next episode of the Equation, and my decision of who I am rooting for to be the next TUF coach was made.
In the email (regarding the show, and coaching) Rich said
“When I was a coach on The Ultimate Fighter series, I was always surprised at how some fighters gleefully sabotaged their own fight goals. They even seemed to work towards making a wreckage of their entire lives. Other fighters on TUF displayed some of the finest qualities of my best math students. These were the guys who had an integration of thought, feeling and action. They maintained a balance between their strong emotion to succeed, coupled with clear thoughts about how to go about their work. And they turned to action – shutting out distraction and getting down to it.”
This statement is a testament to the intelligence of Rich Franklin. The quote speaks of his time as a coach on the show, but still talks of the TUF participants of every season. At this moment the cast of the upcoming show is not open to the public but we already know that of the ones chosen, there will for sure be several “characters”. Rich Franklin is still a poster boy for the UFC, and this quote makes him my favorite for the job. Although it looks like the winner of Franklin vs. Henderson will get the gig, Ace deserves his try at taming the house, and returning for another season.
He doesn’t really want to do another season of TUF. There’s really no upside for him. It doesn’t pay as much as other possible opportunities. He already acknowledged that it doesn’t make any sense to drop down to 185 and fight Bisping. What happens if he wins? Get a title shot at 185? Not.
Dan Henderson on the other hand doesn’t mind another crack at Anderson Silva.
“I have not personally spoken to Dana, the UFC or any of the production people about the show,” Franklin said. “Six weeks in Vegas, I’ve gotten to the point where I could care less for staying in Vegas for that period of time. It’s time away from my family and time away from doing the things I can do to make money. The show doesn’t pay very well…But anything the UFC asks me to do, I’m always on board for. I guess they would more than likely — whoever, between Dan and I wins — they’d do that fight at 185 pounds,” Franklin said. “How that makes sense to me I’m not sure, but I take it one fight at a time. So if the UFC comes to me and says, ‘We’re doing the Bisping fight at 185 pounds,’ then it is what it is.”
- Rich Franklin (He said it better than I could here.)
I can’t blame him. Hopefully Henderson gets his chance to coach.