Rich Franklin Will Coach TUF If He Absolutely Has To
Rich Franklin
Rich “Ace” Franklin never seemed all too enthused about coaching the ninth season of The Ultimate Fighter: U.S. vs. U.K., but now it seems he really, really doesn’t want to. His hints aren’t exactly subtle:
“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.”
Hear that Dana? You can force Rich to eat his broccoli but hes not going to like it and you can’t make him. Franklin added some more nonplussed words regarding the possible drop back down to middleweight:
“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.”
Sadly, the royal mess that is TUF 9 could have been easily avoided if UFC brass weren’t so bent on the U.S. vs. U.K. theme. But why make things easy when you can add a pointless gimmick that will hopefully pep up your stale programming, right?
Tags: Rich Franklin
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F~it if Rich wins and he doesnt want to coach let Nate coach TUF I think he will destroy Bisbing.. Then Rich can fight Wanderlei, or a rematch with Machida if Machida wins v Thiago Silva… But Rich will do whatever Dana tells him to do, it just doesnt make sense to have him fight @ 185 anymore, unless its one off to fight Bisbing but i dont make the rules cheers
AKA guys could take a lesson from this. rich knows what he wants but is willing to set that aside if it is better for the company and the bottom line (in this case, getting good fights and keeping the boss happy).
I don’t want to see Rich fighting at MW anymore, I’d like him to stay at 205. I also think it would be miserable to watch a season with a coach that doesn’t want to be there. I have to think it would be bad for the fighters under him, and bad for the show in general. It might even look a big like Shammy’s coaching job, since all he cared about was the fight with Tito, except that I think Rich has enough integrity to still do his best as a coach, even if he doesn’t want to be there.
a bit like*
rich needs to stay at 205 for the simple fact that i dont think he can survive another fight against the spider. if part of his coachin contract say that dana is gonna pay for his 3rd facial reconstruction. as for him pullin a shammy sham i gotta lean towards wat justin said that franklin has enough integrity to coach the guys that r on the show the same as he did for season 2. i also like FRs idea if franklin wins give the coachin job to mardquardt since he was practicly beggin to b a coach. another idea scrap the whole us vs uk thing. heres wat im getting from this hendo/rich will coach all american fighters and bisping wil coach all the brits. well since u dont have the american coach lined up just scrap the us vs uk and make it a regular TUF season. do the whole pickin teams thing instead of just seperating americans and uk fighters.
This guy is a great ambassador for the sport of MMA, great attitude and always willing. I think he would be a great coach, very intelligent guy but for sure you would see Gurgel again doing what he does best, teaching.
It really doesnt matter if he wants to coach or not hendo is gonna win anyway
bisping will kick either ones ass neway so…….. watever trever
im waitin 4 a season with Mark delagrani (srry if misspeled) as 1 coach & shawn tompkins as the other that would %$#&in great!
I think rich is a team player… and would do a good job of coaching… i think he would do better than mir and his “every show i dont care attitude”
hendo would do a much better job though, but thats my opinion… he has a solid base of skills to teach from, something that is apart of his very being… stricking is easy to teach compared to wrestling or jiujitsu… but the real talant comes from teaching someone to combine the collected knowledge into effective mma…
i just hope that TUF 10 features anderson silva against what ever punching bag they have for him… he did awesome with team nog, looks like he loves to teach, and his english is getting alot better. give it another year and he will prolly speak well enough to have the confidence to teach people that may not speak portuguese… but then again this could make for a good US vs Brasil…. i could only imagine that one ofthe gracies be a guest teacher….
marquardt has expressed deep wants to coach tuf and he should be able to do it he owns his own gym iknow for a fact he is a better coach than bisping is
I too think Nate would be a good pick and that sets up an interesting fight for the finale (or close there after)
Yeah, I like Nate for this better than Rich. I like Rich, don’t get me wrong, I just don’t think he fits. Of course, it may be a non issue on January 18th…we’ll see.
Hendo would do amazing things for TUF and Nate would be a great second choice for coach! I absolutely detest Rich Franklin on the show. He has proven in the past to be a piss poor coach, and his bad attitude and clear unwillingness to want to be a part of it, will make for a horrible season if he wins. There is no way I let Franklin coach on the show.
On top of this Franklin wants NO part of the 185lb division. Even if he were to fight Bisping, that makes him next inline for Anderson Silva and Rich Franklin is so god damn scared of that thought it’s not even funny.
For those who don’t know Dan Henderson all that well from his days in Pride. Hendo is your stereo typical AMERICAN. A man’s man. red white and blue….. So not just for his coaching skills but his patriotism, he is the IDEAL choice for coach on the show. Not to mention he is well liked but still relatively new to most novice UFC fans. Learning more about Dan Henderson will be great for the UFC. Whereas Rich Franklin’s days are all but numbered. No where left for him to go.
I agree that this is a great opportunity for American fans that may not be so familiar with Dan’s pride days. I also understand you making a case for Dan as the coach, but the decision of coach between Dan and Rich is up to Dan and Rich on January 17th. I would also contest that if Dan beat Rich, and then Bisping and faces Anderson again, if he loses again to Anderson, he will be in the same situation that Rich is currently in, not good enough to beat the top guy, but too good to put him against other potential number one contenders.
Should have put this in the other comment…
Also, if Dan loses to Rich January 17th, where does that put him, since “Rich Franklin’s days are all but numbered. No where left for him to go.”?
Kris,
some of mine and dbiz’s comments look really out of place now…maybe you could take them out too.
have some of the comments got mixed up on here some how? whos haveing a go with who haha, and jiujitsuMAN i ment to put “mark my word” just trying to type to quick thats all, dont no if u thought i said “mark my work” or u was just being a smart arse, CHEERS
Yes, there was quite a heated discussion involving me defending your comments and another commentator who’s comments have since been removed for various reasons, therefore mixing up the comments.
i remember now, my comment been removed as well? i dont think i put owt that bad in it? i think its pritty funny how every1 gets on there high horse over the bisping hammil fight, cheers for defending my comment haha
Nah, your comment is still there. And you’re welcome.